Airport Cities: The Value Strongholds of the 21st Centuryby Petros S. Sivitanides,Ph.D. Real estate investors should take special interest in airport cities. 
I would argue that airport accessibility will become increasingly important in the 21st century, as companies rely more and more on air transportation to move people and goods quickly in a global economy and as more and more people join the ranks of the global citizens who expand their lifestyle to several cities around the globe, not only for tourism and leisure but also for several aspects that involve their self-fulfillment as individuals. These megatrends are bound to establish major and secondary international airport cities as the property-value strongholds of the 21st century.The importance of airport cities in the 21st century is indirectly underscored in a 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers study about the “Cities of the Future”, which identified globalization as one of the major megatrends that will shape the cities of the future. As the integration of the global economy continues, local structures are organically integrated with global business. Globalization is bound to continue to reach local economies and localities around the world, as the liberalization of markets, the relaxation of trade barriers, and the establishment of more free economies in a big part of Europe (countries of the former Soviet Union Block) and in giant economies like China continue to shape and reinforce an interlinked pattern of global business. It should be emphasized that globalization has spread well beyond the business world, as advanced information and communication technologies, and especially, the internet, have contributed to the formation of multinational groups of interest and the globalization of all aspects of life, such as education, science, leisure, culture, etc. Globalization of non-business aspects of the earth’s population is furthermore facilitated by increasing incomes, affordability of air travel to masses of people residing all over the globe, and increasing appreciation of cultural exchange. Within this context, I would argue that globalization is here not only to stay but to intensify and play a critical role in shaping the world’s urban and property-value landscape through its effect on the structure of local economies, the location of production, the location of businesses, the spatial path of goods distribution channels and the location of households. Such an effect will intensify in the decades to come, not only as a result of the increasing interaction of local business and populations with global business and foreign populations, but also as a result of increasing incomes that will allow increasing population masses to globalize their lifestyle. By extrapolating this pattern of globalization in every aspect of human life we can only conclude that an increasing number of people will be affected by it in the 21st century, joining the ranks of global citizens and the global way of life. Technology will certainly advance rapidly in the 21st century, but it is highly unlikely that it will bring to humanity Start Trek’s infamous teletransporter, that will eliminate the need of physical transport through some transportation means. With globalization spreading to more and more localities all over the world and the increasing importance of speed and time savings in business, in particular, and life, in general, there is little doubt that the dominant transportation means of the 21st century will be the airplane. In fact, John Kasarda, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has argued that the effect of airports on business location and urban structure in the 21st century will be as profound as the effect of highways was in the 20th century. This proposition points to the prominent role that airport cities will play in the 21st century and the durability of their locational advantages.
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