, Columnist
Building Airports Is Hard. Why Not Use the Ones We Have?
Once-busy regional hubs like Cincinnati, St. Louis and Memphis have untapped economic potential. Drones, perhaps?
The Memphis airport has room to grow.
Photographer: Tim Boyle/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Infrastructure in America is full of contradictions: A shortage of affordable housing, even as rural America hollows out. Fulfillment centers for e-commerce companies like Amazon are booming at the same time that malls are dying. And national airport hubs are thriving while regional hubs are a shell of what they were a decade ago.
One of these problems actually looks more like a solution. Struggling places with excess airport capacity have an economic opportunity that larger, more vibrant cities do not.