Well, at least Dulles, Virginia still has an airport.

Because it can’t claim to be the home of America Online anymore. The Time Warner subsidiary is moving to New York City, with new headquarters just south of Union Square.

Why the move? Because AOL is morphing into an online advertising syndicate:

“If you’re going to be in the advertising business, you have to be in New York because that’s where all the agencies are, that’s where all of the media money is controlled, on Madison Avenue,” said Randy Falco, chairman and chief executive of AOL.

I’m somewhat surprised by the location. I’d have guessed Time Warner would have brought its online unit into the fold at the company’s massive Columbus Circle headquarters. I guess placing AOL three miles downtown lets it retain a semblance of independence, and a hipper neighborhood — which helps in advertising.

Of course, this is a continuing process of Time Warner subsuming the business entity that, once upon a pre-dot-com-bubble time, actually had been in the driver’s seat. I wouldn’t be surprised to see AOL get stripped of its corporate brand altogether inside of five years, to be replaced by the “Platform A” functioning unit label it will soon have.