Economic Development and Transport Hubs

This chapter focuses on the economic benefits that communities may enjoy through having airlines hubbing their passenger or freight services through local airport infrastructure and, where feasible, in having international services making use of it. Similar types of analysis are applicable to other modal hubs such as railway terminal seaports. Focusing on a particular mode has the advantage of avoiding the ad hoc tendency that can accompany drawing examples from very different forms of transportation. The chapter has examined some aspects of the links between the ways in which airports are used and local economic development in the United States of America (USA). It found that growth in the new economy sectors in a region are positively affected by the degree to which the local airport serves a major hub function in the domestic market they could have strong international ties.