What should I build an airport in Minecraft out of?

I'm curious to know for the runways, for the passenger terminals and for the tower that people would launch their elytra from. Any advice?

Black concrete powder? Maybe charcoal blocks for the runways

Did you mean coal blocks? There aren't charcoal blocks (however much I wish there were).

haha yep

i recommend against black concrete powder.. i found out the hard way with my road edits that its a horrible block to build with… even with a small chance of water being even remotely close to the build lol

def coal blocks

waht about heads of your enemies as the foundation and like charcoal of the burned corpes of your anemies and wite concrete made of sand gravel and die made from the bones of your enemies

I don't think you can make charcoal out of that.

Gray concrete

Light gray or just gray? Also, do you mean for the runways, the passenger terminals or the towers?

Gray concrete for the runway. There isn’t a lot of info to use for the other colors.

Thanks for your input! What should I use for the passenger terminals and the towers?

AI generated ideas:
Control tower

airport

modern airport

steampunk/ old western airport

black concrete powder looks absolutely like asphalt, but the water danger is a real issue. Other options might be:
blackstone, obsidian, coal blocks, and black terracotta are the darkest blocks without texture, besides the black concrete.
basalt, netherbricks, deepslate might make good choices for a runway, depending on the palette you choose otherwise.

runway lights: shroomlights, froglights, lanterns, redstone lanterns, beacons. Lava under glass makes a good light source with some light depth coloring.

As for the building and the furnishings? The world is your oyster, have a blast.

I would like to point out that many airports do not have an asphalt runway, but a concrete one.

So you could also consider gray-colored blocks

Indeed. The Murfreesboro airport has an asphalt concrete (what we think of as asphalt) runway, but the Nashville one mostly has ones made out of Portland cement concrete (what we think of as concrete). Some primitive airstrips even have unpaved runways, but I have yet to see a public dirt airfield. There are even runways made out of blue ice on the Antarctic Ice Sheet!

Which gray-colored blocks would you recommend specifically?

polished andesite, to simulate the slabs of concrete?
or smooth stone
if you don't like the border, gray concrete (powder)?

Then again, Elytras are most similar to gliders, and gliders easily use grass runways if you want

If I used unpaved runways, they'd probably be dirt paths just to stand out a bit. Still, I'd want paved runways near actual cities to feel more realistic and stand out even more.

In any case, what would you recommend for the towers and passenger terminals?

I honestly have no idea, being not super familiar with airfields or the current Minecraft block palette, but I've been enjoying reading the discussion.