Independent airports at Shannon and Cork have a healthy future as drivers of regional growth, according to one of the world's leading aviation experts.Dr John Kasarda, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina, spoke to business groups in the region about the future role of Shannon Airport during a visit to the area organised by Shannon Development.

According to Dr Kasarda, the decision to grant independence to Shannon will enable the airport to compete on an international basis. "I think it will have a healthy outcome both for the Shannon region and for Ireland as a whole. . . It will put competitiveness back into the region," he said.

He added that "the Shannon region has some challenges in front of it but it also has some remarkable opportunities".

"The opportunities will be to bring together the business community, the Government and the universities to put together a strategic plan to help Shannon attract new business."

The critical issue for the regions would be to continue to diversify into "new economy" business, such as high-tech, research and development and knowledge-intensive industries.

A strong airport could attract this type of industry to the region while at the same time acting as a hub for distributing goods around the world, according to Dr Kasarda.

He described the airport as "the lifeline for the new economy".

"Shannon, while it has only 10 per cent of the international passengers entering Ireland, has up to 26 per cent of the cargo. That needs to be leveraged," he said.

"The other elements - passengers, etc - will follow as you grow a healthy, vibrant business," he added.

According to Dr Kasarda, 40 per cent of the value of world trade now goes by air and world air cargo traffic is expected to treble over the next 17 years.

This importance of air cargo is reflected in the growth of air trade between the Republic and the United States. In 1990, this was worth $2.7 billion (€2.35 billion); by 2002 it had increased to $25.1 billion.

Also vital, according to Dr Kasarda, is the infrastructure in the region. The roads and other transport networks need to be developed to allow speedy movement of goods to and from the airport.

"What we are finding in today's world is that accessibility and connectivity are critical," he said.

This must be allied with a general focus on "agile logistics" by providing facilities such as central cargo storage facilities, advanced telecommunications infrastructure and cold storage facilities.

"We need to think less in terms of infrastructure and think more logistics. All the major thinkers in economics are saying the same thing: logistics is the next frontier for competitive advantage," said Dr Kasarda.

The Shannon region had a number of other important strategic strengths, such as its universities and research institutes. These needed to be leveraged to attract knowledge-intensive industry to the mid-west.

Dr Kasarda has published more than 70 academic articles and nine books on the subject of aviation infrastructure, logistics, urban development and commercial real estate.

He was also elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his research on airport-driven economic development.