Manchester Airport's Concorde Conference Centre recently played host to the Built Environment's first Airport Cities Development Conference.

It brought together leaders from 14 airports across the UK and Republic of Ireland to look the vision for developments at airport and the opportunities they will bring to feed into and integrate into the growth plans of the surrounding cities.

Through a series of panel discussions and presentations the event uncovered new insights and plans, from those at the forefront of the Airport Cities agenda, whilst hearing about new opportunities and the ingredients that make an airport city viable.

The inaugural Airport Cities Development Conference was attended by over 300 leaders from across the construction, property and infrastructure industries, who came to hear about the plans of leading UK airports, whilst networking and connecting to promote a collaborative approach to this form of transformational development happening in and around airports.

A key take-out was the role of Airport Cities, which are set to be crucial in driving economic growth across the UK.

This urban form evolving around many airports globally is set to see hundreds or even thousands of hectares of undeveloped land being transformed, which will bring a mass of opportunities for development across all sectors, helping drive economic growth and unlock phenomenal opportunities within the region.

The event was a unique opportunity to fully understand what an Airport City means to those at the forefront of the development – not only for the airport and the surrounding area, but surrounding communities, cities and the wider UK economy.

Jonathan Haigh, Managing Director of MAG Property and Airport City JV partner was a keynote speaker at the event.

He commented: “Airport City Manchester is one of the most exciting business destinations in development today and over the next 10 to 15 years will unlock significant new opportunities by leveraging the airport’s position as a major hub for international commerce to help drive economic growth in the North of England and beyond.

“With works set to commence later this summer on recently approved plans to deliver what will be the largest office development outside London for over 20 years with a campus style HQ for leading e-commerce business The Hut Group – and for the development of a new £250 million hotel district that will deliver in the region of 1500 beds across four hotels – we are delighted to welcome delegates to Manchester at what is a very exciting phase for the UK’s first Airport City.”