Airport location for smart and sustainable living: A model and a case study of rural Missouri, U.S.

Abstract

• Airports can be relocated to reduce carbon footprint of driving to airport location. • A carbon-footprint formula helps compare emissions from transportation. • Reducing transportation's carbon footprint enables sustainable and smart living. • Real-world results from Missouri, U.S., for smart and sustainable airport location. We consider the problem of determining the location of a regional airport with connections to major hubs within an airline network for the objective of minimizing the carbon footprint of travelers, road congestion, and accident risk. This is aligned with an overarching goal of smart and sustainable living. The overall travel journey is usually composed of a trip from home to the airport, called the connecting trip , and a trip in the air, which is composed of one or more flights. Currently, in the United States, millions of travelers drive in excess of 100 miles to reach overcrowded airports. The connecting trip not only magnifies the driver's carbon footprint, but also creates traffic congestion in cities that have airports—further increasing CO 2 generation in areas surrounding the airports and worsening road safety. The model proposed here identifies a suitable airport location to directly reduce total driving miles. Indirectly, congestion on roads connecting to the airport and the traffic intensity at the airports in the hub-and-spoke network will also be reduced and passengers’ comfort levels will be improved. We will employ a case study from the state of Missouri, United States, to illustrate our model and its concomitant analysis.