For sure that any time you have asked yourself: Does the size really matters? Well, I am going to answer your question if you are thinking about airports. In former posts I have made some measures of some of the biggest airports all around the world; you can look at these posts to see the maps of the airports:
1. Europe
2. North America
3. Asia-Australia
4. South America-Africa-Middle East
CLICK TO BROWSE THE INTERACTIVE MAP
Firstly I want to show the airports size´s rank (font: CityLines):
AIRPORT | AREA (ha) |
Dallas Fort Worth | 4360 |
Denver International Airport | 4200 |
King Fahd International Airport | 3410 |
Shanghai, Pudong | 3350 |
París, Charles de Gaulle | 3100 |
Madrid Barajas | 3050 |
New International Bangkok Airport | 2980 |
Chicago O´Hare | 2610 |
Cairo International Airport (Wadi al Jandali) | 2550 |
Beijing Internacional airport | 2330 |
Washington-dulles | 2255 |
Amsterdam, Schipol | 2090 |
New Delhi, Indira Gandhi international airport | 1770 |
Toronto Pearson | 1660 |
Salt lake City | 1635 |
Atlanta Airport | 1625 |
New York, JFK | 1525 |
Frankfurt Airport | 1470 |
Tokyo, Haneda | 1445 |
Dubai International Airport | 1445 |
Roma Fiumicino | 1395 |
Los Angeles International | 1325 |
Kansas city | 1290 |
Hong Kong | 1285 |
Londres, Heathrow | 1215 |
Barcelona, El Prat | 950 |
Rio de Janeiro, Galeao International Airport | 950 |
Moscu Sheremetyevo | 875 |
Sao Paulo, Guarulhos International | 855 |
Sydney airport | 820 |
Mexico, Aeropuerto Internacional Ciudad de Mexico | 685 |
Buenos Aires, Pistarini | 670 |
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai-Delhi) | 575 |
This means that these 33 airports occupies the awesome area of 61.750 Ha that it is more or less Singapore´s size. The mean area for these airports is 1.871 Ha.
Secondly, I also going to show the passengers´ ranking, this is the following:
AIRPORT | PASSENGERS |
Atlanta Airport | 92365860 |
Beijing Internacional airport | 77403668 |
Londres, Heathrow | 69433565 |
Chicago O´Hare | 66561023 |
Tokyo, Haneda | 62263025 |
Los Angeles International | 61848449 |
París, Charles de Gaulle | 60970551 |
Dallas Fort Worth | 57806152 |
Frankfurt Airport | 56436255 |
Hong Kong | 53314213 |
Denver International Airport | 52699298 |
Dubai International Airport | 50977960 |
Amsterdam, Schipol | 49754910 |
Madrid Barajas | 49644302 |
New International Bangkok Airport | 47910744 |
New York, JFK | 47854283 |
Shanghai, Pudong | 41450211 |
Roma Fiumicino | 37651222 |
Sydney airport | 36022614 |
New Delhi, Indira Gandhi international airport | 34729467 |
Barcelona, El Prat | 34387597 |
Toronto Pearson | 33434199 |
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai-Delhi) | 30439122 |
Sao Paulo, Guarulhos International | 30371131 |
Mexico, Aeropuerto Internacional Ciudad de Mexico | 26368861 |
Washington-dulles | 23056291 |
Moscu Sheremetyevo | 22555309 |
Salt lake City | 20440913 |
Cairo International Airport (Wadi al Jandali) | 16148480 |
Rio de Janeiro, Galeao International Airport | 15184350 |
Kansas city | 10469892 |
Buenos Aires, Pistarini | 8786807 |
King Fahd International Airport | 5267000 |
It is also amazing that the total amount of people that have used these 33 airports in 2011 is 1.384.007.724 (font Wikipedia). This amount of people is similar to China´s population, wow!
But the real question in this post is if size really matters for air traffic and airport management. Well, I think that if we compare the size of the airports with the amount of people that uses each airport we will have some idea about it. Watch the table below:
AIRPORT | PAX/AREA |
Londres, Heathrow | 57146,967 |
Atlanta Airport | 56840,529 |
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai-Delhi) | 52937,603 |
Los Angeles International | 46678,075 |
Sydney airport | 43930,017 |
Tokyo, Haneda | 43088,599 |
Hong Kong | 41489,66 |
Mexico, Aeropuerto Internacional Ciudad de Mexico | 38494,688 |
Frankfurt Airport | 38392,01 |
Barcelona, El Prat | 36197,471 |
Sao Paulo, Guarulhos International | 35521,791 |
Dubai International Airport | 35278,865 |
Beijing Internacional airport | 33220,458 |
New York, JFK | 31379,858 |
Roma Fiumicino | 26990,123 |
Moscu Sheremetyevo | 25777,496 |
Chicago O´Hare | 25502,308 |
Amsterdam, Schipol | 23806,177 |
Toronto Pearson | 20141,084 |
París, Charles de Gaulle | 19667,92 |
New Delhi, Indira Gandhi international airport | 19621,168 |
Madrid Barajas | 16276,82 |
New International Bangkok Airport | 16077,431 |
Rio de Janeiro, Galeao International Airport | 15983,526 |
Dallas Fort Worth | 13258,292 |
Buenos Aires, Pistarini | 13114,637 |
Denver International Airport | 12547,452 |
Salt lake City | 12502,087 |
Shanghai, Pudong | 12373,197 |
Washington-dulles | 10224,519 |
Kansas city | 8116,1953 |
Cairo International Airport (Wadi al Jandali) | 6332,7373 |
King Fahd International Airport | 1544,5748 |
In this case we can see the incredible variation of the ratio PAX/AREA. From the most efficient airport, that is London Heathrow with 57.147 passengers managed per Hectare, to the least efficient airport, that is King Fahd International Airport with 1.545 passengers managed in 1 Hectare, there is a difference of 37 times more efficiency for London Heathrow.
Well, also considering that the size ratio between the biggest and the smallest of these airports (Dallas Fort Worth vs Chhatrapati Shivaji International) is 7,5 times, we can see how there is a lack of planning & management in the soil occupation of these infrastructures.
Considering the importance of keeping natural soils, I think this example is pretty clear about how infrastructures can be more or less sustainable on soil occupation.
DOWNLOAD THE KMZ FILE WITH THE AIRPORT´S INFO!