According to Word Spy:
aerotropolis (air.oh.TROP.ul.lis) n.: A city in which the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered around a major airport.

Word Hum picked up this coinage via a story in the NY Times this week, about the opening of Bangkok’s massive new airport complex, Suvarnabhumi. According to the Times this “golden land” will eventually encompass “all the components of a major metropolis: shopping malls, office buildings, hotels, hospitals, an international business center, conference and exhibition spaces, warehouses and even a residential community.” Even more over-the-top new airports in Dubai and Beijing will be opening in a few years. This trend has its roots in showplace terminals like O’Hare and Charles De Gaulle 2–which turned airports from fusty warrens of passageways into shiny, white spaceports–but really got going when Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok opened in 1998 on its own island, custom built to house the massive air-travel city, which employs some 45,000 workers.

Previously:
– Airports
– Word of the Day