Evaluating the competitiveness of the aerotropolises in East Asia

In the twenty-first century, the development of the aerotropolis is recognized as one of the major contributors to the local and national economy in terms of stimulating new investment, fostering employment and creating new business opportunities. It is important to acknowledge the competitiveness of an aerotropolis (COA) which clearly suggest the advantages and disadvantages of such a development. An evaluation of COA criteria, regarded as a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem, cannot easily quantify the weight of the criteria and rating of each alternative owing to the uncertainties and imprecision in the real world. In this respect, this paper attempts to evaluate the COAs in East Asia, where air transport is sharply increasing, using an integrated fuzzy MCDM methodology. To assess the changes in rank of COAs, a sensitivity analysis is adopted. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.