Expert warns airport it must 'grow or die' - Crain's Manchester Business

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12:00 am, June 23, 2008
Expert warns airport it must 'grow or die'

US academic says growth should come before cuts in carbon emissions

By Michael Fahy

Civic leaders need to concern themselves less with carbon footprints and more with effective planning to ensure that Manchester Airport becomes the focal point for growth in the region, according to an international expert.

Dr John Kasarda, who was recently invited to speak in the city as part of the Innovation Manchester initiative, said civic leaders needed in particular to prioritise airport growth over environmental concerns.

“People who talk about putting caps on passenger numbers...you're basically putting caps on Manchester. On your ability to compete, to raise income levels at the bottom of the ladder and to attract companies from around the world,” he said.

Kasarda, a director of the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and a leading exponent of the aerotropolis theory of airport-based city growth, added: “Stability is not an option either for passengers or cargo — you either grow or you die.”

His comments have special significance for Manchester Airport, where passenger numbers have been flat at 22 million for the past two years.

However, Kasarda said Manchester Airport's public ownership model meant that it possessed a unique opportunity to develop “both inside and outside the fence”, as long as it was not sidetracked by promises to reduce carbon levels.

Balance

“You can go back to the Stone Age and reduce your carbon footprint to zero, but I don't know of any metropolitan area that has ever shrunk to greatness,” he said. “There has to be a balance.”

He pointed to the growth of areas such as Zuidas next to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam which not only possessed some of the highest rents per sq ft in Holland (e365 per square metre compared to e270 per square metre in downtown Amsterdam) but also the global headquarters for companies like Dutch banks ING and ABN Amro, Unilever and the European head office of accountancy giant Ernst & Young.

In Korea, meanwhile, a joint venture partnership is building a £30bn city on 1,500 acres of land next to Incheon International Airport.

“Airports have changed from places of departure to places of destination,” said Kasarda. “Accessibility is often easier than into cities.”

Moreover, he said airports now increasingly attract upscale retailers attracted by higher footfalls — five of the top 10 retail outlets in the US by footfall are at Atlanta airport, which carries 88 million passengers a year.

Although Manchester only carries a quarter of that number, it is one of a number of major airports which now generate more revenues from passenger spending and “non-aeronautical sources” than from landing and cargo handling fees.

Kasarda argued that half of the emissions around airports are caused by standing traffic and the best way to reduce it is to better organise land use so that businesses which use the airport most are located nearby, together with a dramatic increase in road and rail capacity.

Peter Nears, strategic planning director for Peel Holdings, which owns Liverpool and Doncaster airports, among others, said that Kasarda's lecture “should have been delivered in front of a room full of planners”. He said that the important role of airports had been flagged up as a top priority in early Northern Way strategy documents but had subsequently been downgraded.

Nears argued that Kasarda's vision could materialise either in Manchester or in other northern cities if it were allowed to do so by city planners. “The more the idea spreads the better it will be for business,” he said. “We will lose our competitive advantage if we don't address this.”

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