The airport – airline stand-off

Mutual benefit is too easily sacrificed

A good argument can be mounted that many airports and the communities they serve would benefit from a complete change in the way they interact with the airlines serving their area.

Let’s look at regional airports first and apply transport analogies from the 19th and 20th centuries. For many towns when the railway or asphalt roads arrived at their doorstep there was considerable celebration. Rail and all-weather roads brought considerable opportunity both for the export of goods from the town and encouraged people from the cities to visit and spend money, or even move permanently. It was and remains a virtuous circle of better transport infrastructure leading to regional economic growth.