Over many centuries, large cities got shaped along most active trade routes, with their economic prospects directly dependent on their capability to use transit points efficiently. In the heyday of shipping and navigation, nascent cities mushroomed on sea shores and along river banks. Then the invention of railway transport served as the next inflection point in the trend for development of cities as centres of concentration for goods participating in the economic turnover. A similar change in trends was observed later when maps started featuring large motorways.

The author of the Aerotropolis concept is John Kasarda, an American academician and professor, who acted as a consultant on the project for development of this aviation-driven urban development form in the Moscow Region, among other world-renowned projects.