The Orlando International Airport turns on an Alcatel-built Wi-Fi network with no-cost service: The system was designed for public access and operational uses. The airport authority's IT director misspeaks, however, when he says such a capability is rare in a ground-up airport Wi-Fi network: "It is uncommon for a network to be designed from the ground up to service both public and private needs."
That's only true of some of the original Wi-Fi networks built in the early part of this century. Newer wireless networks typically encompass support for authority and airline uses as a separate function of the network. It's likely that a minority of deployed airports offer this, but the majority of new and in-progress rollouts consider that a prime goal.
Alcatel resold Airespace before the Cisco acquisition, so both could be correct.
Denver has that "feature", and I know that in the Logan, O'Hare & Midway, DCA/IAD, and Seattle RFPs, this was the underlying function of the network: to provide private support (airports/authority) and that public WiFi was icing on top of the pie, kinda like the Muni networks, since the death of CDPD.