OPINION
Airport World
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Airport World editor , Joe Bates , looks forward to the upcoming Airport Cities World Conference in Ekurhuleni and the ACI Asia- Pacific Regional Conference & Exhibition in Phuket .
Although the term ‘ airport city ’ is relatively new , I have personally considered airports to be mini-cities in their own right ever since I began working at one 30 years ago .
This could be due to the fact that in my first weeks as a trainee journalist at Heathrow I attended a meeting with 4,000 cabin crew ; got introduced to the airport ’ s chaplain ( the Rev Harry Burlton ); got drunk at the Control Tower Bar ; met Kim Basinger and visited the morgue ; well , at least the dedicated place set aside to store bodies in the event of a disaster !
Later liaisons with Heathrow ’ s emergency services ( I once went out on a training exercise with a team of fire fighters that involved racing around the old Perry Oaks Sludge Works in a dinghy just in case an aircraft crashed landed into it ) and countless visits to airline offices , hotels , pubs , sports grounds and , of course , the dedicated press room , only served to reinforce my conviction that Heathrow is indeed a city .
Crikey , it even had its own bylaws , newspaper , Skyport ( at which I spent four happy years ) and its own annual beauty pageants – Mr and Miss Heathrow Airport !
For these reasons , I had no trouble accepting the airport city concept when it was first mooted or the idea of the ‘ aerotropolis ’ – new urban areas developed around airports . Airports are , after all , huge economic generators for cities , regions and , sometimes , entire nations , so it makes perfect sense to me that businesses / commerce would gravitate towards them .
The word ‘ aerotropolis ’ was actually coined by Dr John Kasarda , director of the Center for Air Commerce at the University of Carolina ’ s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise , so it is only fitting that he writes the introduction to the themed ‘ airport cities ’ section of this issue .
The section also includes features about Malaysia ’ s airport city plans and global investment strategy ; retail development ; the creation of a ‘ space coast ’ in Florida ; and ambitious projects at Belo Horizonte and Warsaw Chopin .
The other big ACI event in April is the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference & Exhibition in Phuket , Thailand , where delegates will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the region ’ s gateways and the key role airports play in driving economic development .
I am certainly looking forward to it and leaving Europe ’ s wintery weather behind for a few days !
In light of the event , this issue also contains ACI ’ s latest medium-term forecast for the Asia-Pacific region , a special report on Asia- Pacific ’ s LCCs , and a Project Watch feature on Hong Kong International Airport .
And if that ’ s not enough , we also report on ACI ’ s 2012 Airport Service Quality ( ASQ ) Awards – dominated again by Asia-Pacific airports – and learn more about the innovative use of light and sound in airport terminals ; Heathrow ’ s social media strategy ; and the latest global IT trends .
Next up after Ekurhuleni and Phuket is the small matter of the ACI Europe / World Annual Conference & Exhibition in Istanbul . Doesn ’ t time fly when you ’ re having fun ? AW
AIRPORT WORLD / APRIL-MAY 2013
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