Fly Santa Fe, toward an ‘aerotropolis’

We recommend getting to know Dr. John Kasarda’s insights into the role of the “aerotropolis”— an airport-centered metropolis — in healthy, sustainable development. Here’s a brief introduction to his findings: “The real question is not whether Aerotropolises will evolve around major airports (they surely will). It’s whether they will formand grow in an intelligent manner, minimizing problems and bringing about the greatest returns to the airport, its users, businesses, surrounding communities, and the larger region it serves.”

Kasarda continues, “The rapid expansion of airport-linked commercial facilities is making today’s air gateways anchors of 21st-century metropolitan development where distant travelers and locals alike can conduct business, exchange knowledge, shop, eat, sleep, and be entertained without going more than 15 minutes from the airport. This functional and spatial evolution is transforming many city airports into airport cities.”

Clustered developments, as opposed to strip malls, are a concept synonymous with the “walk to the Plaza” lifestyle of old-time Santa Fe, when a resident of Casa Solana, for example, walked along W. Alameda to a job at Sears downtown.

Casting the net around frequent destinations for Santa Feans, Dallas and Phoenix are established aerotropolis cities and Denver is a fast-emerging one— its stunning new airport heralds Denver as the gateway to the Rockies and re-establishes a new multipurpose satellite hub for residential, cultural, and commercial activities.

Airports, the new metro hubs, spur development just as highways defined cities in the 20th century. Looking further back, this parallels the influence of railroads in the 19th and seaports in the 18th century.

This brings us directly to the Northern New Mexico Air Alliance, the mission of which states: “Building an economy for all Santa Feans continues to be one of our top priorities— and daily service throughout theWestern region is central to that effort. From the film industry to tourism and technology, every sector stands to benefit,” said Santa Fe mayor Javier Gonzales in a statement. “We’ve plugged Santa Fe into cities up and down theWest Coast while at the same time adding a partner in Phoenix, that is a vibrant city with millions of people and many attractions as a destination for northern New Mexicans.”

Current partners in NNMAA include Tourism Santa Fe, Santa Fe Chamber, Santa Fe County, Taos Ski Valley, and Angel Fire Resort.

The Santa Fe Association of Realtors, in conjunction with MeowWolf and hosted in the Private Jet Center at Santa Fe Airport, is holding a June 24 fundraising event that includes entertainment and lots of fun. Plans are in the works for an airport event featuring the Santa Fe Symphony.

Now, ponder this statistic, and weigh in the advantages of ease of access and economical parking at our airport. The ontime rate is the same as Albuquerque and the cancellation rate is within 1 percent of Albuquerque. Economic studies show that the Santa Fe Airport helps support 680 jobs, while 1,480 additional jobs are lost in our community due to under-utilization of our airport.

Santa Fe is considered a first-choice travel goal, the second choice being a European destination. Consider the Aeropuerto de Murcia – San Javier – serving southeastern Spain and voted by passengers as the best small European airport in Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, and named by Airports Council International as the best in Europe in the category of fewer than 2 million of passengers per year in 2014 and 2016. Santa Fe handled 154,000 passengers in 2016 and could draw 1.3M passengers (factoring in those lost to Albuquerque’s Sunport).

Part of the city’s master plan for our airport is to provide a new airport entrance road extending west from 599. In the meantime, a question to all Santa Feans: What do you think of the car mortuary leading up to the airport?

As a community, let’s not cut our noses off to spite our faces (as our moms would say). Let’s get down to removing old scars and be proud to FLY SANTA FE! We urge you to support and use your local airport. Please check out these websites for more information:

flysantafe.com (includes flight information); santafechamber.com; santafe.org.

We bring a new look to real estate to help integrate you within our community. A profound love and knowledge of Santa Fe combine with a fresh outlook, vitality, experience, local insight and fun make Penelope Vasquez and Drew Lamprich your trusted real-estate advisors. Contact Penelope at 505-690-3751 (penelope.vasquez@sothebyshomes.com) and Drew at 505-470-9194 (drew.lamprich@sothebyshomes.com).