Published Articles
This is Why No Airport Privatization in the U.S.
I was President and CEO of Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA) for eight years, from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2013. During those eight years, I had more conversations than I could possibly count with people who wondered why airport privatization has not taken off in the United States. Many of these conversations were with people heavily involved in running or financing privatized airports around the world. Many were held with U.S. colleagues who thought privatization would provide benefits. In the world’s largest economy, and primary bastion of capitalism, airport privatization has remained the rarest of infrastructure animals. Why?
Public Private Partnership (PPP): How to Get to Transaction Close
In my first article Public Private Partnership (PPP): What You Need to Know, I explained the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and their significance in the development of airports. The activity involves consolidating numerous variables, and disparate interests and motivations into a single working framework i.e. the Airport Master Plan. In this article, I will outline the process that enables these variables to be rationalised and how the PPP mechanism is kick-started.[1]
Public Private Partnership (PPP): What You Need to Know
Airports that are well and professionally-run generally present themselves as attractive assets. They become even more valuable if they can also make business sense and demonstrate profitability as operational enterprises in their own right.
Being both operationally efficient and profitable is an enviable state for a modern airport to be in; where operational capacities are in equilibrium with profit generation; where there is sufficient plough-back potential to make the airport asset self-sustaining and viable as a going-concern. In the context of an airport, this self-sustainability exemplifies “value”; it demonstrates continuity and an airport’s ability to catalyse the local economic multiplier.