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Well.. depending on the location, they can be turned into race tracks, as was the case with the air field that was a Royal Canadian air force base near Gimli, Manitoba in Canada. Of course it also turned into a landing strip in July of 1983 for the Air Canada Boeing 767-223, which I'm sure most of us aviation guys.. and girls.. know about..
The aircraft, which was less than a year old at the time, was at cruise altitude of 41,000 feet when one of the engines flamed out, then minutes later, the second engine also flamed out because the aircraft ran out of fuel, so the pilots used the nearest air strip at Gimli to glide/land the wide-bodied 767. No serious injuries resulted and the aircraft had very minor damage. It was repaired, then was given the name "The Gimli Glider", and it served in Air Canada's fleet for another 25 years until it was retired in 2008.
Sorry, I'm always intrigued by the Gimli Glider story.. - There are many potential uses for older airports, depending on the location, they can be turned into malls, business parks, maybe residential areas. They can also be used to serve general aviation to take away some of the traffic from other airports in the area.
Mesa's (in the Phoenix area) Williams Gateway Airport is an example of a US Air Force base (was Williams Air Force Base) that was turned into another airport for commercial air traffic in the Phoenix metro area, which took traffic away from Phoenix's biggest and busiest airport, about 30 miles to the west, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
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know about.. 
- There are many potential uses for older airports, depending on the location, they can be turned into malls, business parks, maybe residential areas. They can also be used to serve general aviation to take away some of the traffic from other airports in the area. 
