The City of Dayton is the direct link to the beginnings of commercial aviation as the birthplace of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Today that spirit of innovation continues with Dayton International Airport opening a new chapter in its development - the creation of an airport city. 

The airport is located at the 'Crossroads of America' - Interstate 70 and 75, one of the busiest intersections in the United States.  Dayton's Airport provides air service to meet the needs of businesses and travelers throughout south west Ohio.

Dayton has a catchment area of 5.1 million people and provides service via 10 national air carriers.  United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Air Tran Airways and American Airlines processed more than 2.5 million passengers through Dayton International Airport in 2009.

The airport has three runways, the longest of which is over 10,000 feet long. The terminal encompasses 366,159sqft. The airport has plenty of capacity. It lies within a 600-mile radius of 61% of the United States population and 63% of the nation's manufacturing centres.

The airport's Strategic Business Plan clearly states the initiative to aggressively develop new non-aeronautical assets over the coming seven years. The Airport is situated on 1,821 hectares of land and is uniquely positioned as a non-contiguous part of the City of Dayton.

Iftikhar Ahmad, director of aviation at Dayton International Airport states, "The business plan is a roadmap that calls for 'continuous progress while leveraging the airport's tangible and intangible assets to remain an economic engine for south west Ohio."

Short-term business development goals were established in line with the vision of continuous progress, including construction of a three-storey parking garage, construction of a nationally branded hotel, and the release of approximately 162 hectares of airport land for non-aeronautical use.

Long-term goals call for the re-use of a 1.2 million square foot building (a former UPS facility) for cargo or aviation-related business; and eventually for the airport to be connected to State of Ohio's rail network to facilitate intermodal links.

Dayton International Airport is commencing a number of expansion projects to provide adequate capacity based on aviation activity forecasts predicting an air cargo demand increase in conjunction with an anticipated 2% increase in passenger growth per year.

The future Airport Layout Plan (ALP) presents the proposed long-range development projects that will be necessary to meet the forecast demand over the next 20-30 years. Long range development projects may include safety area modifications to Runway 6R/24L, extension of the runway from 7,000 to 8,500 feet, the relocation of Runway 18-36 to the north, extension of Runway 6L/24R from 10,900 feet to 12,600 feet.