Background: The purpose of this study is to provide an assessment of international airports
and airlines, ‘IAAs’, and to organize and classify the literature on air transport to stage the importance
of this topic and encourage future research in the projection of the aviation and tourism sectors.
Methods: It is a bibliographic study, and this work focuses on IAA documents published in major
international journals, conferences, and books from 2000 to 9 June 2021; this topic is scattered across
various journals and has secondary data in many disciplines. Results: The findings suggest a new
paradigm applied to the IAA topic and are classified in four first-order research streams: airports;
airlines; connectivity; and competition. This study identifies new challenges and opportunities
for researchers, airport and airline operators, and stakeholders to make better future decisions.
Conclusions: There is no agreement on an explicit definition of the IAA concept that captures the
true nature of this topic. For this reason, this article is innovative in the new IAA concept and in
how it will possibly change the theoretical frameworks in future scientific research in the aviation
and tourism sectors. This study has been needed to better understand the effectiveness, projection,
and different business strategies to be adopted by researchers and organizations in the aviation and
tourism future.
