are airports that are not attached to their designated cities municipally part of those cities?

What I'm getting at is this. There are a number of cities (i.e. San Diego, LA, NYC-LAG, NYC-JFK, Chicago ORD, Chicago MDW, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, etc.) where airports are within city limits, so obviously are full parts of their cities.

But about airports physically separted by a city (and perhaps even owned by it): are they part of the city municipally?

I realize the answer would be NO! for airports in other states (Cin-KY, DC-Dulles & Nat'l).

But about places like San Francisco, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, etc. Their airports are removed from their cities. I know the city of San Francisco owns SFO, but is SFO, down in SM Co, incorporated into the city of SF? How is police jurisdiction, etc., determined?

I heard DFW airport is jointly owned by the cities of Dallas and Ft Worth.

The airport that Detroit owns is a tiny municipal airport just east of the downtown area. Detroit Metro Airport is actually owned and operated by Wayne county.

San Diego is actually going to get rid of its airport in the coming decades. It'll probably be moved in the desert areas to the east about 70 miles away from the center city. They might keep the airport already here as a domestic and the farther one into international. Kinda like the duluce-regan thing in washington, which I hate.

I don't care were they put it, they just need to get rid of the one in place right now.

MSP is technically jointly owned by Minneapolis and Saint Paul, but the airport itself sits in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington.

Humphrey Terminal (small, regional, and charter airlines) is owned by Minneapolis, and Lindbergh Terminal (large and international airlines) by Saint Paul.

but the airport itself sits in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington.


Is it in Bloomington? Looking at the map, it doesn't really look like it's "in" any one particular city. It borders Richfield, Minneapolis, Bloomington, and the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. It's also north of 494 and I didn't think there was any part of Bloomington that was north of 494.

Boston has a major airport (Logan) in city limits. It also has satellite airports in Bedford MA, Providence RI and Manchester NH. Bradley airport near Hartford and Springfield and Portland airport in ME are about 90 miles away. Most big cities have numerous airports near them that are in a variety of municpalites with various transportation and cost sharing measures.

Just to be clear about Houston's Airports.

Houston-Hobby is located justifiably within the city limits, not that far from downtown.

And while IAH is in the city limits, it might as well be in the suburbs as far as it is from any real big part of town. Just as reference, Detroit's Airport is in the suburb of Romulus, yet it would probably take you half the time to get there from downtown Detroit than IAH from downtown Houston.

Just to be clear about Houston's Airports.

Houston-Hobby is located justifiably within the city limits, not that far from downtown.

And while IAH is in the city limits, it might as well be in the suburbs as far as it is from any real big part of town. Just as reference, Detroit's Airport is in the suburb of Romulus, yet it would probably take you half the time to get there from downtown Detroit than IAH from downtown Houston.


No absolutely not. Detroit's airport is in the pasture with chicken, cows, and goats. I didn't know where we were when we landed. I think it took us like an hour to get from the airport to downtown.

And that pasture with chicken, cows and goats is closer to Downtown Detroit still. If you've ever seen areas around IAH, you'll find sprawl. They are two different dynamics. An hour? It takes me 30-45 mins @ most.

Pittsburgh's airport is about 20 miles from downtown, but it is still in Allegheny County, which is Pittsburgh's home county.

Lots of great answers here, but when I orignally started the thread, I was actually more interested in incorporation than I was in ownership.

I realize that ownership may come in many forms. The city of Chicago owns O'Hare and Midway; the PANYNJ owns JFK, LaGuardia, Newark.

It's incorporation that was issue to me. I believe the city of San Francisco owns SFO. But SFO is removed from SF. It is in San Mateo County. Is SFO considered within city limits (in the sense that Alcatraz, Treasure Island, YB Island, removed from the city but a part of it, are)?

Do you reenter SF when you exit Bayshore Freeway into SFO? SFPD have jurisdiction, right?

Does anyone know the answer to this in SF and other similiar cities? There is a difference between owning land and being witin city limits.

I think the Dayton airport is well removed from Dayton proper, but is somehow still in the city as the employees have to pay the city income tax?

Miami International Airport isn't located in any city. It borders Miami to its east, Doral to its west, Miami Springs and Hialeah to the north. The airport is run by the County, not the city. But most of the cities down here are so (geographically) small that just about everything (metrorial, buses...etc) is run by the County rather than indiviual cities anyway.

Here in Stl, Lambert Int'l is owned buy the City and its well over 15 miles from the city center. It is in a few small suburbs and it is in St. Louis County which has nothing to do with the city it self. Here only the city has control over anything that goes on at the airport and only people that live in the city can work there.

ATL-Hartsfield-Jackson Int'l isn't really connected to ATL, but it is only a few miles outside of city limits and only few more from "five points", the center of downtown ATL.

It is owned by the city even if most of it is located in a neighboring county to the city's county. The original protion of this airport was an abandoned racetrack in the 1910's-1920's, so it, as a result, is much closer to the city than if it had been built, say 15 years ago.

I think its so interesting how differently cities do things. For example, BWI, Baltimore's international airport, is owned by the Maryland Aviation Administration which is an agency under the Maryland Department of Transportation. Neither the City of Baltimore nor Anne Arundel County, BWI's home county, is responsible for BWI nor any of the other state airports.

D/FW is not in Dallas or Fort Worth, and I believe is in both Dallas and Tarrant (Fort Worth) counties; so I am not sure who runs D/FW. There is also Love Field in the city of Dallas, and again I am not sure who runs it. As far as Austin, the city built a new airport at the closed Bergstrom Air Force base in the late nineties; I think it opened in 1999. It is owned by the city, and although technically in the city limits, it was only annexed after opening, and is still seems to be outside the city.

San Diego is actually going to get rid of its airport in the coming decades. It'll probably be moved in the desert areas to the east about 70 miles away from the center city.

The only alternative site for an airport that would actually be used is probably somewhere on Mirimar's property. But, I think SAN will stay right where it is because it is so convenient for the tourist trade and business community.

MSP is owned and operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission that is set up by the state. It isn't in any city, but is its own piece of land. There had been talk in the past about building a new airport for Minneapolis/St. Paul in the far flung suburbs like Denver and Detroit ended up doing, but it was decided to expand the current airport where it is. There has also been talk about creating high speed direct rail lines from the airport to airports in Rochester, Mankato, St. Cloud (small cities around an hour drive away) and the like to use their excess capacity for regional and freight traffic to relieve airport noise in the heavily populated areas around the airport.

The only alternative site for an airport that would actually be used is probably somewhere on Mirimar's property. But, I think SAN will stay right where it is because it is so convenient for the tourist trade and business community.


Well Miramar is the best choice for a city airport but its currently owned by the Navy and the last list of base closures kept the base intact. And the city is never going to kick out the hand that feeds it. SAN will probably stay were it is, even though its going to contiue to be inefficient.

It's incorporation that was issue to me. I believe the city of San Francisco owns SFO. But SFO is removed from SF. It is in San Mateo County. Is SFO considered within city limits (in the sense that Alcatraz, Treasure Island, YB Island, removed from the city but a part of it, are)?

Do you reenter SF when you exit Bayshore Freeway into SFO? SFPD have jurisdiction, right?
SFO is owned and controlled by San Francisco. The Mayor of SF appoints the five member of the Airport Commission. The SFFD has an airport division and the The Airport Bureau of the San Francisco Police Department has jurisdiction over SFO. I don't know anything about SFO being considered within the city limits of SF and it's really hard to find any info on that subject.

Well I know with certain cities, (NY, Philly, Bmore, and DC) airports and roads are highly influenced by federal and military dollars. The feds spend a huge chunk of cash in PA, NY and MD.

Sine these are historically the financial, education, technology, military, media, and political centers in the country—not to mention most populace—they almost pay for themselves with the amount of travel in the region. It doesn’t help that these cities are so bunched up, and the rest of the country is so spread out.

^And this relates to this thread's topic in what way??^

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (http://www.portseattle.org/seatac/) is located roughly 12 miles south of downtown Seattle in the city of Sea-Tac, formerly unincorporated King County that incorporated in the 90's and named itself after the airport. The airport is operated by the Port of Seattle. King County International Airport (Boeing Field) (http://www.metrokc.gov/airport/) is in the city of Seattle (well, most of it) but is run by King County. Southwest Airlines is working with King County to relocate to Boeing Field however some NIMBYs in Seattle & folks with the Port of Seattle are upset at the potential move.

Here is a thread on the topic:

Southwest Airlines eyeing move to Boeing Field (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=224674)

Here is Sea-Tac (Seattle-Tacoma International) in Sea-Tac, WA. It is Seattle, Tacoma, & the Greater Puget Sound's main airport.

http://www.aerolistphoto.com/images/wa/seatac/2002/sch2002_007.jpg


Boeing Field (King County International Airport):

http://www.aerolistphoto.com/images/wa/seattle/2002/seh2002_158.jpg