The dramatic development which, in just one century, has led to aviation and has meant that what was once a kind of hobby practised by a few intrepid enthusiasts, has over time become one of the most important modes of transport for passengers and goods; at the same time there has been a profound transformation from those early airfields with just a few simple huts in which a handful of privileged passengers were attended to. This transformation has given way to modern facilities, both airside and landside, able to attend to millions of passengers each year and transport thousands of tonnes of goods. Equipped with all kinds of sophisticated technologies to enable aircraft operations to be performed with the highest levels of safety and security, they are at the same time meeting places and places of culture, leisure and shopping for the passengers who pass through their terminal buildings each day. It is not without reason that they are often referred to as " airport cities". Descubrir la operación de aeropuertos submerges readers in this interrelation between aircraft and infrastructures, describing the complex system that is the operation of an airport, but always in simple, straightforward language, as readers are already accustomed to seeing in other books in the collection by professor Marcos García Cruzado. Publication index: 1. How Aircraft have evolved and airports have changed their shape 2. The first aircraft operations 3. The users of an airport: Aircraft, passengers and cargo 4. Operating airports 5. Areas of an airport 6. The terminal areas 7. Terminal buildings 8. Commercial and general aviation aircraft 9. The passenger at the airport 10. Ground handling services 11. Air cargo area 12. Rescue and Firefighting Services, RFFS 13. Control towers 14. The Aircraft movement area 15. Visual aircraft operation aids 16. Maintenance and upkeep of the ground movement areas 17. Severe weather airport operation 18. The airport in the surrounding territory 19. Aircraft-airport operations 20. Airspace management 21. Airport certification 22. Forms of airport management and operation