Regional Airports have become increasingly important elements of the air network system, both as feeders of hub-and-spoke services and as origins or destination of point-to-point services.

Congestion at the main hubs and increasing demand for air transportation - both for passengers and freight services – necessitates revaluation of the overall air systems, with regional airports taking an ever expanding role. Congestion nowadays is not only associated with countries such as the USA and those in the EU, but also a variety of other countries with fast developing economies where there is a strong increase in air transportation demand.

The revolution of the existing airport system, including regional airports requires the developing of new optimisation tools which can simulate the whole process and produce optimal solutions. These models are also essential to predict future demands and, in particular the role that regional airports will play.

The siting of new airports involves taking into consideration a variety of environmental, ecological, social and economic factors which transcend the problem of transportation resources optimisation itself. Regional Airports can be a powerful driving force behind the development of an area and conversely can result in major problems if they are wrongly sited.