Airports Are Becoming Cities Again: Terminals, Access, and the Climate Push

Airports are no longer just places you pass through. They’re employment centers, logistics hubs, and regional gateways that shape how metro areas grow. And right now, airport infrastructure is in a national reinvestment cycle. Through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the FAA’s Airport Terminal Program allocates $5 billion total (roughly $1 billion annually from 2022–2026) for competitive grants that address aging terminal infrastructure.

This matters because terminal upgrades aren’t cosmetic—they’re capacity, security flow, gate availability, baggage systems, and passenger experience. When airports function better, business travel friction drops, tourism rises, and metro competitiveness improves. When airports function poorly, delays and congestion become a tax on the regional economy.

The aviation system is also navigating governance and staffing realities. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 was signed into law on May 16, 2024 and runs through FY 2028, outlining congressional priorities for aviation safety and system performance. That act and related oversight focus attention on workforce capacity and modernization challenges—an operational issue that can shape how quickly air travel capacity scales.

For OUM readers, the interesting layer is how airport investment reshapes land use around the airport. Many regions still treat the airport as an “edge condition”—zoned for industrial and parking, with limited mixed-use planning. But modern airports behave like “aerotropolises”: clusters of logistics, hotels, office parks, and service employment that rely on airport access. The transportation question becomes: can people and goods get to the airport efficiently without wrecking surrounding neighborhoods?

This is why airport access projects—transit links, road redesigns, and curb management—are just as important as terminal renovations. Terminal upgrades can increase passenger throughput; without access improvements, that throughput becomes roadway congestion.

Now add climate. Aviation is under pressure to decarbonize, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is a major lever. The U.S. Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge sets goals including 3 billion gallons per year of domestic SAF by 2030 and 35 billion gallons by 2050 (aiming to satisfy 100% of domestic demand). Whether SAF can scale that quickly is debated, but the policy direction is clear: fuel supply chains, blending infrastructure, and airport fuel systems are entering a transition era.

The practical transportation impact is that airports may need new on-site fuel handling upgrades, new contracts, and in some cases new storage and blending capabilities. Airports also face ground-side decarbonization: electrified ground support equipment, charging for fleet vehicles, and better transit access that reduces car trips.

So what does “airports becoming cities again” mean in land use terms?

It means zoning around airports will become more strategic. You’ll see stronger demand for:

• logistics and cold storage tied to air cargo,

• workforce housing within reasonable commute distance (without noise conflict),

• hotel and conference development,

• and road/transit projects that reduce last-mile bottlenecks.

The big risk is unplanned growth. If airport-adjacent development happens without a transportation circulation plan, you get the worst version of an aerotropolis: sprawling parking lots, congested arterials, and neighborhoods that absorb traffic with no mitigation.

The opportunity is planned growth. Airports are a rare place where federal dollars, state priorities, private airlines, and regional development interests align. The regions that treat airport investment as transportation + land use, not just “terminal design,” will capture more value and create less friction.

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