Analysis of the dynamics of evolution of multi-airport systems worldwide that can help to guide their effective development in the future. Given the capacity constraints on existing major airports, the development of multi-airport systems is going to be a key mechanism by which air transportation systems around the world will be able to meet future demand. In order to better understand how these systems will evolve, a systematic case study analysis of 59 airport systems worldwide was performed. The analysis showed significant differences in the evolution of multi-airport systems across world regions. In the United States and in Europe, the recent development of multi-airport systems primarily involved the emergence of secondary airports. In Asia, multi-airport systems have generally evolved through the construction of new high capacity airports, due to a much weaker set of available airports, high perceived benefits of strong growth of traffic and weaker opposition to the construction of airports. Given the capacity constraints on existing major airports and the limited ability to increase their capacity, the transition and development of multi-airport systems appears to be key mechanism by which air transportation systems around the world will be able to meet future demand.