flyswatter wrote:Jet Blue is probably the best of all the US Airlines when it comes to "walkability" and HQ being well thought out in Long Island City. Of course, Amazon may force them to move to Orlando (long rumored due to cost of living). Yes, United is at Willis Tower but I have only heard how much of a pain it is from an operations standpoint being on so many floors. Walkable, but disjointed as an office.
Otherwise, SWA and Delta are just giant sprawling office buildings with bridges over parking lots and streets. I think it looks great, and the story is ridiculous. I'd love to hear about how green that place is going to be. I personally would love to work in a corporate hq like what they're building if I had to work in the burbs.
United is rumored to want out (
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commerc ... 2-tailwind) and they still have significant operations near O'Hare for training and flight ops. On a global level, BA, AF and KLM are all located out near their respective hub airports, despite being nominally headquartered in walkable, transit-friendly World cities like London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Those companies obviously have no trouble attracting workers to their non-urban offices, even without the car-first culture that is so common in the US.
Long story short, not every company will have the same priorities when it comes to site selection, and people who fancy themselves an "urban economist and opinion leader" (like the author) should recognize that employees at an airline in Texas aren't neccesarily going to place the same premium on bike lanes and artisanal eateries as someone working at a think tank in Portland.