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Boxed In: The Limits Of Rust Belt Airports

6 December 2012 No Comment

Pittsburgh - Source: allairports.net

The following list identifies 55 commercial aviation airports in the Rust Belt in order by land area (or footprint). Pittsburgh International is far and away the largest airport in the region and is one of the largest in the United States. The average size among these 55 airports is 2,613 acres, or just approximately 4.1 square miles.

For some of these cities, the small footprint of the local airport presents challenges for future growth and expansion. This problem is particularly acute for Erie, Chicago (Midway), and Harrisburg. Even some of the larger airports in the Rust Belt (by size and/or traffic) are hemmed in by development, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago (O’Hare), St. Louis, Columbus, Cleveland, and Rochester, NY. As the aviation industry changes, these site limitations could result in the need for pursuing expensive options to remain competitive, such as land acquisition or construction of a new airport on a greenfield site or perhaps at a former military base.
  1. Pittsburgh – 12,900 acres
  2. Indianapolis – 7,700 acres
  3. Chicago (O’Hare) – 7,627 acres
  4. Cincinnati – 7,000 acres
  5. Detroit (Metro) – 6,400 acres
  6. Dayton (Cox) – 4,200 acres
  7. Peoria – 3,800 acres
  8. Madison (Truax) - 3,500 acres
  9. Fort Wayne – 3,351 acres
  10. Cedar Rapids (Eastern Iowa) – 3,288 acres
  11. Saginaw (MBS) – 3,200 acres
  12. Baltimore (BWI) – 3,160 acres
  13. Grand Rapids (Ford) - 3,127 acres
  14. Duluth – 3,020 acres
  15. Minneapolis-St. Paul – 2,930 acres
  16. Rockford-Chicago – 2,900 acres
  17. St. Louis (Lambert) – 2,800 acres
  18. Allentown (Lehigh Valley) – 2,629 acres
  19. Des Moines – 2,625 acres
  20. Waterloo-Cedar Falls – 2,583 acres
  21. Sioux City – 2,460 acres
  22. Green Bay (Straubel) – 2,441 acres
  23. Hartford (Bradley) – 2,432 acres
  24. Toledo (Express) – 2,345 acres
  25. Akron-Canton – 2,300 acres
  26. Springfield (Lincoln) – 2,300 acres
  27. South Bend – 2,200 acres
  28. Columbus, OH (Port Columbus) – 2,221 acres
  29. Milwaukee (Mitchell) – 2,180 acres
  30. Lansing, MI (Capital Region) – 2,160 acres
  31. Marquette (Sawyer) – 2,100 acres
  32. Quad City – 2,021 acres
  33. Syracuse (Hancock) – 2,000 acres
  34. Cleveland (Hopkins) – 1,900 acres
  35. St. Joseph, MO (Rosecrans) - 1,707 acres
  36. Appleton – 1.638 acres
  37. Flint (Bishop) 1,550 acres
  38. Terre Haute (Hulman) – 1,475 acres
  39. Youngstown-Warren – 1,468 acres
  40. La Crosse – 1,380 acres
  41. Huntington, WV (Tri-State) - 1,300 acres
  42. Evansville – 1,250 acres
  43. Dubuque – 1,240 acres
  44. Binghamton – 1,199 acres
  45. Rochester, NY – 1,136 acres
  46. Providence (TF Green) – 1,111 acres
  47. Traverse City (Cherry Capital) – 1,026 acres
  48. Albany – 1,000 acres
  49. Buffalo-Niagara – 1,000 acres
  50. Burlington, VT – 942 acres
  51. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton – 905 acres
  52. Charleston (Yeager) – 787 acres
  53. Harrisburg – 680 acres
  54. Chicago (Midway) – 650 acres
  55. Erie (Tom Ridge) – 450 acres
- Rick Brown