Like the train stations of the past, airports have become magnets for new investment which metropolitan areas must include in their thinking on spatial and economic development.
Located between the city and its airport, airports corridors are driving forces of urban development: a challenge facing elected officals and operators.

Few questions to Mathis Güller, project manager, Güller-DHV-EBP-Paul van Beek team, designer of the Paris airport corridor project  – 2009 Airport Regions Conference Honorary Award -

How would you define the concept of an airport corridor?
This concept involves developing the areas between a city and its airport. Today, these zones are key drivers of economic development in metropolitan areas such as Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Berlin, Osaka and Amsterdam. In the competitive global marketplace, the ability to offer the right conditions for attracting multinational companies to airport zones will be decisive. But we also have to think about housing for those who work in these areas. Large cities must thus begin to consider their airports as engines of urban development. In this respect, the construction of the Louvres-Puiseux eco-neighbourhood in France, where 3,500 homes will be built over 10 years, is to be commended.  

Mathis Güller - Güller & Güller

What types of companies can the corridor attract?
The airport corridor is the ideal place for the technical and service functions of companies that are strongly dependent on trade and air transport: headquarters of major multinational corporations, their training and/or research & development centres, and high value-added logistics activities, not forgetting convention centres and exhibition halls.

What differentiates the "Le Bourget-Roissy corridor" from other airport corridors?
This corridor has two airport platforms, Le Bourget and Paris-Charles de Gaulle. It’s also the greenest and most compact. The Plaine de France area features a wealth of farmland, valleys and outstanding peri-urban parks, which offer an attractive living environment for employees and local residents.

What are the prerequisites for economic success in an airport corridor?
There are basically three. First, accessibility: we need to build transport infrastructure to support the development of the corridor zone. Regarding the "Roissy-Le Bourget corridor", I believe the construction of the automatic metro and, of course, the Gonesse rail link between the RER mass rapid transit B and D lines are essential to its success.
Second, the corridor must also offer mixed developments combining office space, high technology centres, temporary accommodation, agricultural activities and public facilities.
Third, airport corridors require effective integrated governance of these economic spaces.

Amsterdam, Berlin et soon Paris

At the MIPIM real estate show 2010 in Cannes, the"Airport corridors" round table will try to compare few european metropolitan area. (Thursday March 18th - 10.00 - 11.30 am - Marina Hall Plaisance ; at Paris Région space (bar)

• Klaus Peter Heinrich, Head of Airport Region Team Berlin - Brandenburg,  will discuss  Berlin airport's economic positioning.