Aero-News: Quote of the Day

ANN's Quote of the Day usually derives from current news, though we reserve the right to pick quotes out of history that have a bearing on the day's events and issues.

Sometimes, you'll find them timely and in keeping with the content of the day's news... and sometimes, they'll just be thought-provoking.

Reader suggestions and comments are welcome... and if particularly intriguing, timely, or poignant, may themselves become future Quotes of the Day.

Let us hear from you, folks!

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"Airport planners are still building airports with fancy architecture and lots of retail space, but the low-cost airlines often won’t use them. And the low-cost airlines are not necessarily small anymore; they are a growing sector that represents the future. They want smaller, cheaper airports that increase efficiency."

Source: Professor Richard de Neufville, with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Noting that leading low-cost airlines with a preference for small, inexpensive airports are now the largest airlines in the United States and Europe, de Neufville says airport planners in major metropolitan areas need to accept this paradigm shift and build flexibility into airport design. He states airport planners have been slow to grasp the reality that the business model of their largest customers has changed dramatically.

FMI: www.mit.edu, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03081060701835688