The paper presents the current relationships between cities and mobility in the world scale, using air transport as a relevant indicator of the structure and territorial organization. The study of the general patterns of mobility, the differential analysis between demographic and airport hierarchies and the development of connectivity measures (connection coefficients) reveal the regions and cities that host the busiest airports. Their high connectivity responds to different functionalities of global order, which are identified in the text. In this sense, the work insists on the fundamental role played by airports when positioning cities in the processes of globalization in highly competitive socio-economic contexts.