Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA. Big airport, located on a sort of peninsula – the airport half is part of Oakland, while the residential half is part of Alameda (the rest of Alameda is an island, mostly landfill from the dredging of the canal that turned it from a marshy peninsula into an island; similarly, the airport is constructed on fill that turned Bay Farm Island into a peninsula).
Similarly, Seattle Tacoma Int’l Airport is in neither Seattle nor Tacoma, but rather in the incorporated town of Seatac. Since the airport is often abbreviated that way, you could say SeaTac airport is in Seatac.
Also, I’m pretty sure Entebbe (Uganda’s int’l airport) is actually in Entebbe.
Irvine, CA (John Wayne/Orange County/SNA)
You don’t have to swim across; the river there is itself part of the District.
Many old maps call present-day Arlington “Alexandria County.” This was the correct designation from 1801 (It was a county in DC; the Maryland side was called “County of Washington”) until 1870, when it was renamed “Arlington County.”
Stockholm airport is in Papua New Guinea. 
There is, however, an airport within the Stockholm city boundaries, Bromma.
Cape Town International is within the limits of the City of Cape Town, and both of Durban’s airports, old and new, are within the city limits of Durban. However, that’s sort of cheating, because South African cities have giant mega-municipalities which govern the whole metro area.
Johannesburg-OR Tambo Int’l is actually not in the City of Johannesburg, though; it’s in the neighbouring Ekurhuleni municipality.
Salt Lake City airport is within the city limits.
The OP’s question is a little muddled, but I think they’re interested in the idea of major airports within the core city limits of the major urban area they serve. I’m not sure how your example works versus the OP as interpreted.
SNA was originally Santa Ana Army Airfield way back in the WWII days. And it was in unincorporated Orange County.
It was later (early 1960s?) renamed “Orange County Airport”.
Eventually (1970s) the name “John Wayne” was attached.
The airport is currently unincorporated county territory which borders the incorporated cities of Santa Ana, Irvine, Newport Beach, & Costa Mesa along (roughly) the N, E, S, & W edges of the airport respectively.
As tangible evidence of which jurisdiction is where, the Irvine PD is much in evidence writing speeding tickets on the roads leading to the terminal, but the county Sheriffs provide all LE services on the airport property, including the terminal roads & parking structures.
Austin’s airport used to be in the city limits. Despite voter’s voting against it several times, they moved it to the old Bergstrom AFB outside of town a few years ago. The old Mueller Airport has since been turned into a ‘planned community’.
I flew into Hong Kong Kai Tak airport before they closed it in 1998 and moved to Chek Lap Kok.
You used to fly past residential tower blocks on the way in and be able to see people cooking and watching TV.
Not so much “within the City Limits” as “within your front yard”. Hard to see how Gibraltar beats it to the “closest to the city” prize. Oh well…
Judging by the drive time into the city, I would vote for “yes”. Tokyo does have Haneda Airport within city limits, though it has very few international arrivals/departures, dealing primarily with domestic flights.
To add to this-- The city of Denver became 50% larger when they got the land, and it’s something like 20 miles away from the edges of actual Denver. The old airport was so much a part of the city that it was not uncommon to have to drive under runways just to get anywhere.
Yes, I’ve flow into and out of that old airport too. It would be a question of distance from the city centre. Where is the city centre in Hong Kong? If it’s the city hall, that’s on the other side of Victoria Harbour, about 5 kilometres from that airport in a straight line
San Antonio too. It was out in the country when the land was developed as an airport just before World War II but the city grew around it long ago.
That is all considerably before the airport was built.
Is it still outside of town? My wife’s family owns some property out that direction, and it’s well inside the city limits nowadays.
And FWIW, the old-timers in her family all agree that Bergstrom airport is a big improvement over Mueller- apparently the longer runways are much easier on passengers and planes.
Apparently Sea-Tac is actually is Seattle!
I thought the airport was in the City of Sea-Tac or Burien but it appears that a sliver of Seattle is gerrymandered to place the airport in the city limits similar to what happened with DIA and Denver.
I would still count Reagan National though. DC is unique in that it has heavy geographic restrictions, and pretty much has no room for a long runway needed for modern aircraft (the only runway in DC is at Bowling AFB, and hasn’t serviced fixed wing aircraft in 60 years or so). It is in the midst of high density urban development- there’s several residential high rises that are right next to the airport property. It’s also the only DC area airport that serviced via Metro rail (as of now). The drive across the 14th street bridge to the airport takes literally 3 minutes, barring traffic.
Just to expand on this a bit, the City of Alexandria split off from Alexandria County in 1870. The remaining bit was called Alexandria County until 1920 when it changed it’s name to Arlington County to avoid confusion.
While the Courts in Virginia tend to follow county lines and city lines, it isn’t absolute. For example, the City of Falls Church falls under the jurisdiction of the Arlington Circuit Court. The Nineteenth Judicial District has jurisdiction over both Fairfax County and Fairfax City
Hmm. There’s potentially two questions in the scope of the OP.
- What cities have airports within the official, legal city limits?
- What cities have airports in the Central Business District, or adjacent to the CBD?
There are some cities whose legal boundaries stretch far into the suburbs or even into rural areas, in the sense of the legal city limits. Examples are Juneau, Alaska or Virginia Beach, Virginia. Thus, you could have “City Police” patrolling rural roads and investigating crop theft from Old Joe’s barn.
There are some cities where the “urban” area stretches far beyond the city limits. Examples are Washington, DC (Adjacent urban areas a quick bridge ride across the Potomac in Virginia), and New York City (Newark, NJ). You can cross from Arlington, VA to Washington, DC quickly without “going into the suburbs” or “going into the country”.