Major airports by distance from "downtown"

[bilbao58]

Deleted

[mhays]

The "winning" cities have it close enough to be convenient (and on rail), small enough to avoid wasting land, and far enough to avoid hurting development.

I'd say Seattle is in the sweet spot at 12 miles. But Boeing Field is closer, and our potential new tallest building appears to be down to 1,020' after dealing with the FAA.

We're also in the process of finding a new way to add major capacity, including expansion of the minimal service at Paine Field in Everett and a potential "second Sea-Tac" somewhere south, which I don't give very good odds.

[Yuri]

I'll post two extremes for Brazil:

Aeroporto Santos Dumont (Rio de Janeiro), 0.7 mile

Aeroporto Internacional de Viracopos (São Paulo), 56 miles

Viracopos serves Campinas (10 miles) as well, but it's under the SAO umbrella, together with Aeroporto de Congonhas and Aeroporto Internacional de Guarulhos (Brazil's busiest and international gateway). Viracopos has became Brazil's largest hub with over 100 destinations.

[mrnyc]

i would not recommend heading out the door at santos and walking that 0.7 miles to downtown rio tho.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

i would not recommend heading out the door at santos and walking that 0.7 miles to downtown rio tho.

Heh. I've done it before while carrying all of my luggage, but it is not a walk for the skittish.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i'm not surprised that DEN "wins" this one.

the drive into the city goes through some pretty empty country:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8247...7i16384!8i8192

the first time i ever flew into DEN i remember thinking to myself "where the fuck is denver?" on the drive into the city.

That was my experience on my very first trip to London; I flew into Stansted Airport, direct from LAX. Stansted is 42 miles from Central London. I took a cab from the airport, and I was like 'Oooh child, where ARE we?' https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8380...4!8i8192?hl=en

Leaving London, I took the train to Stansted.

Edit: My mistake, thinking about this very first trip I took to London, I actually flew from LAX to SFO, then from there to Stansted. My bad!

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

That was my experience on my very first trip to London; I flew into Stansted Airport, direct from LAX. Stansted is 42 miles from Central London. I took a cab from the airport, and I was like 'Oooh child, where ARE we?' https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8380...4!8i8192?hl=en

Leaving London, I took the train to Stansted.

Ha. Yeah, they are very liberal with how they define London airspace. New York's 3 main airports are all within 20 miles of each other and carry about as many people as London's far more spread out airports.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Heh. I've done it before while carrying all of my luggage, but it is not a walk for the skittish.

i’ve actually walked all around that area, but later on my own, not directly from the airport. i was pursuaded not to by many people. also, with spouse, so.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Ha. Yeah, they are very liberal with how they define London airspace. New York's 3 main airports are all within 20 miles of each other and carry about as many people as London's far more spread out airports.

for sure, but i find distance like that really doesn’t matter as long as you are connected to them by rail in some way. with gru you can, but thats what the sao paulo region airport needs to get going on with the other two viracopos and congonhas. no doubt there have been plans.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

i would not recommend heading out the door at santos and walking that 0.7 miles to downtown rio tho.

There's a highway creating a barrier between its terminals and Downtown's street grid. Rio de Janeiro opened their light rail in 2016. Its three lines serve the whole Downtown and Santos Dumont as well. Very convenient.

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Ha. Yeah, they are very liberal with how they define London airspace. New York's 3 main airports are all within 20 miles of each other and carry about as many people as London's far more spread out airports.

Originally Posted by mrnyc

for sure, but i find distance like that really doesn’t matter as long as you are connected to them by rail in some way. with gru you can, but thats what the sao paulo region airport needs to get going on with the other two viracopos and congonhas. no doubt there have been plans.

Airports catchment areas are usually slightly larger than the metro areas. And as mrnyc said, distances are relative when you have good connections. In a bad day, you can take more than 1 hour to get to Congonhas (6 miles) or up to 2:30 to Guarulhos (17 miles).

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Yuri

There's a highway creating a barrier between its terminals and Downtown's street grid. Rio de Janeiro opened their light rail in 2016. Its three lines serve the whole Downtown and Santos Dumont as well. Very convenient.

yes im familar.

whats happening with rail plans for the other two sao paulo airports? any movement?

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Yuri

There's a highway creating a barrier between its terminals and Downtown's street grid. Rio de Janeiro opened their light rail in 2016. Its three lines serve the whole Downtown and Santos Dumont as well. Very convenient.

Looking sharp!

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

yes im familar.

whats happening with rail plans for the other two sao paulo airports? any movement?

Guarulhos is now connected by Line 13-Jade, opened in 2018. There's also an express service to Luz Station. As the airport station is almost 1 km away from terminals, there is a bus shuttle system and now they're building a monorail to link the three terminals and the station.

Regarding Congonhas, it will be served by Line 17-Gold. It's a heavy monorail like Line 15-Silver, but its construction has been painfully slowly. It's more than 10 years now. They are promising for Dec 2023, but it has been postponed so many times that I wouldn't be surprised if we had more delays. In any case this line won't be very helpful for people going to airport. It runs east-west whereas Central São Paulo is northwards. When it's ready, it will take at least two connections to get there. Better to pick up a taxi, an uber or even a bus, specially as Congonhas is relatively close.

And Viracopos, in 2023 they will start to build the Trem Intercidades, aiming to link São Paulo to Campinas (north), Sorocaba (west), Santos (south) and São José dos Campos (east). The first section will be São Paulo-Campinas and it will serve Viracopos Airport.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Looking sharp!

I saw it for the first time last year, when I went to Rio. It's really good. It gives a laidback, a charming atmosphere to the entire area, otherwise a very busy and crowded business district. And they were bold there: they took almost half of Rio Branco Avenue, the most important avenue in Rio, to build the light rail lines.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Yuri

And Viracopos, in 2023 they will start to build the Trem Intercidades, aiming to link São Paulo to Campinas (north), Sorocaba (west), Santos (south) and São José dos Campos (east). The first section will be São Paulo-Campinas and it will serve Viracopos Airport.

is that an extension of the current train that goes as far as jundiai? or a seperate new train line?

[TWAK]

KC seemed hella far away from downtown.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by TWAK

KC seemed hella far away from downtown.

google maps says 21 miles driving distance from KC city hall to the middle terminal at MCI, so yeah, it's way out there, easpecially for a more mid-sized metro area.

it's also interesting to note that the airport is NNW of downtown while the vast bulk of KC sprawl appears to spread generally southward, on both side of the MO/KS border.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

is that an extension of the current train that goes as far as jundiai? or a seperate new train line?

I understand it's bit of two. There will be one that will link Jundiaí and Campinas with stops along the way and another one that will go straight from Campinas to São Paulo with a stop in Jundiaí.

EDIT

II googled and it seems it will be like this:

Trem Intercidades (TIC): It will operate between Barra Funda (station in São Paulo) and Campinas, making a stop in Jundiaí.

Trem InterMetropolitano (TIM): The line will connect Francisco Morato and Campinas.

Line 7-Rubi: Trains will operate between Palmeiras-Barra Funda and Francisco Morato stations.

If that's right, Jundiaí, Campo Limpo and Várzea Paulista, all part of Jundiaí metro area, will no longer be served by CPTM (São Paulo metro railway) and will be part of this TIM.

[ilcapo]

Stockholm, Sweden: 26 miles

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by ilcapo

Stockholm, Sweden: 26 miles

Yeah, though convenient for Uppsala I guess!