. Airport

ll large cities and many smaller ones have an airport, a place where passenger and cargo air­craft can land and take off. Airports are important transportation hubs. Civil air­ports are run as businesses, although they are often owned by governments, especially the larger facilities. There are also military airfields, which function as airports for armies, navies, and air forces.

Types of Airports

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) classifies airports into two main categories: com­mercial service and general aviation. A commercial service airport handles air­liners on all routes: short commuter
trips, internal regional flights, national flights across the United States, and international flights to and from other countries. Commercial service airports also operate as cargo airports, where air­freight comes in and out.

A commercial service airport per­forms two main functions. First, it must make sure that airplanes land and take off safely. Second, it needs to handle passengers and cargo smoothly and rap­idly. Airports have facilities to process passengers and baggage through ticket­ing, check-in, security, and departure and landing procedures. They also have areas for freight handling and storage.

General aviation airports have either no scheduled passenger flights or small numbers of them. They handle all other kinds of airplanes-business, charter, and privately owned-except military flights. (Military airplanes usually use their own airfields.) A small general avi­ation airport handles light aircraft, such as single-engine private planes, while a larger one can also manage executive jets. General transportation airports, the biggest kind of general aviation airport, can handle a large airliner.

Most large U. S. airports are owned by city, county, or state governments or public corporations. Small airports are often privately owned. While most large airports are miles away from downtown, small airports in city centers can handle

V/STOL (short for vertical/short takeoff and landing) airplanes and helicopters. A landing area built specially for heli­copters is sometimes called a heliport.