it's not that planes need a lot of space, it's that many airports are ridiculously large to accommodate many planes, and far away from city centers. Those are c

it's not that planes need a lot of space, it's that many airports are ridiculously large to accommodate many planes, and far away from city centers. Those are choices made perhaps due to noise or pollution, but there are exceptions where airports are inside the city and small enough to walk from end to end, such as Burbank in Southern California. Why is there a tendency to build a few huge airports instead of smaller regional ones?