Aerotropolis

Aero-What?
For the past couple of years, the buzzword around Memphis has been Aerotropolis. There have been committees formed, articles written, logos drawn, and meetings held, all because of this one idea. So what does the term “Aerotropolis” mean exactly and what does it have to do with Memphis?

An Aerotropolis is a city that has centered its economy around its airport. Airport cities serve as, “regional multimodal surface transportation nodes and magnets for
business location, commercial transactions, information exchange and leisure activities.” (Kasarda, 2008) Dallas Fort Worth, Detroit and Dubai are cities attempting to recast the local and regional economy and claim the designation. However, Dr. Jack Kasarda holds the Kennan Chair at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill insists only one regional economy is currently an Aerotropolis………you guessed it - Memphis!

The number one reason why Memphis meets this criteria is the FedEx World Hub and the demand it creates for businesses desiring to locate around it. (should we go on? # of packages, shipping times etc.)

New Age of Trade
Cushman & Wakefield has recently designated four cities in the United States as global inland ports where the combination of transportation modes creates a robust global access node.

Along with the Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas regions, Memphis ranks among the top four ports in the origination of, termination of, and value of freight.

Memphis, in particular, has a quadramodal transportation network and global access system with the availability of the four R's of transportation:

River
Rail
Roads
Runways

Memphis has worked to expand and enhance the Quadramodal transportation infrastructure giving Memphis a decided competitive advantage in a global marketplace driven by efficiencies in time to market.


















Memphis International/Top Cargo Airports
Memphis International Airport is the closest America has to an aerotropolis.
With a $28.5 billion economic impact on Memphis it has a higher per-capita impact of any airport in the nation. For example - Atlanta Hartsfield has a $19.8 billion economic impact.
“This century will be characterized by the ‘survival of the fastest.’ That is what you have here: Speed, agility and connectivity."

For the seventeenth consecutive year, Memphis has remained the world's leading airport for air cargo volume. Hong Kong continues to pursue with a strong second place and Los Angeles is the closest domestic airport for air cargo. With FedEx focusing its global market access through Memphis, Paris, and Guang Jo in China, the Memphis airport continues to grow in its leadership role in the Aerotropolis initiative and will soon finish its 20-year strategic planning process.
In addition to FedEx operations UPS operates a Memphis hub and the Department of Defense has just opened a C5A Galaxy base on the airport grounds.

Delta/Northwest merger-Richard Anderson, CEO of the new Delta, proclaimed the Memphis airport as an 'integral' part of the first truly global airline. With low costs of daily operations and landing fees, the airport expects to grow in the next few years including the possibility of additional international non-stops. Average runway taxi times in Atlanta, for example, are approximately 27 minutes while the runway taxi times in Memphis are less than seven minutes.
















Check out this article about Memphis' Aerotropolis from the MemphisDaily News http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=45350