Airport

An airport is a transportation structure in the SimCity series, which allows for regional transportation between different cities. It allows for increased tourism and helps boost demand for commercial services. The airport is also one of the structures that covers the most land area, sometimes making them difficult to build, especially in cities that are well-developed.

Although there are positive factors, as with its real-life counterpart, high pollution and crime rates are a problem in the area around airports.

SimCity 2000[]

In SimCity 2000, Airports, more than anything, serve to increase the demand for commerce. There are a lot more restrictions with regards to airports when it comes to how you zone them. First of all, the size restriction is a minimum of 2x6 tiles. In other words, if you were looking at a rectangle, one side must be at least two tiles wide, and the other side must be six tiles long. If your airport doesn't meet these dimensions, there will be little development because runways need a certain amount of space before they can be built. In fact, if you demolish a single runway tile, every single runway tile it was connected to will also be destroyed.

Secondly, airports must be powered and watered, both are very important. Finally, it's unwise to zone for dense commercial property immediately next to airports, since airplanes run the risk of crashing into the tall buildings that typically develop in those type of zones. While usually minor, such crashes have the potential of developing into serious problems like massive fires.

After an airport successfully develops, you'll see planes take off and head to other cities while other planes come in for a landing. Additionally, a helicopter will appear and let you know if there's heavy automobile traffic.

SimCity 3000[]

Sc-airports-domx — An airport in SimCity 3000

In SimCity 3000, airports are zoned and have a chance of coming up through business zoning.

SimCity 4[]

In SimCity 4, airports are found in the transportation category, and can placed by the mayor. There are three different types of airports:

Landing Strip - Opens your city up to new economic opportunities.

Municipal Airport - Can entice more business to your city.

International Airport- Can bring thousands of business travelers and tourists to your city.

Trivia[]

There is a known glitch in the game, which causes high amounts of crime to occur at the airport regardless of how well it is covered by police stations. As of yet, there is no official patch to remedy this problem.
The landing strip is the only version of the airport which unlocks the three available planes in UDI mode (crop duster, skywriting plane, and the skydiving plane).
Once an airport is completed, taxis and taxi missions will be unlocked in the UDI mode.
Aside from custom content, the airport is the only mayor-ploppable building which has a construction animation seen with growable structures.

SimCity Societies: Destinations[]

Airport simcitysd — Airport in SimCity Societies: Destinations

This expansion pack to SimCity Societies includes an single airport, shown below.

SimCity (2013)[]

SimCity (2013) includes two airports, the municipal and international airport.

Municipal Airport - The municipal airport is a ploppable building that will transport medium and high wealth citizens, as well as cargo. The building can be upgraded.Citizens do not want to live next to an airport, but factories are happy about having an airport nearby.

By default the Municipal airport comes with one runway and one passenger terminal. It can be expanded with 3 extra runways, for a total of 4 runways. Players may also add either cargo or passenger terminals, but only up to 4 terminals can be attached to an airport at a time.

International Airport - The international airport is a great work and can be built in a region to provide a boost in tourism and cargo. It looks and is laid out exactly like the real-life San Fransisco International Airport, minus the large control tower, which is actually exactly like Los Angeles International Airport's Theme Building. This area is occupied by a triangular building in the real San Fran Airport.