ABSTRACT
First, should airports be run as commercially oriented profitable concerns or should they be thought of as public utilities with public service obligations? In other words, should their objective be to cover their full costs from charges of various kinds levied on passengers and other users or should their prime purpose be to provide a good level of service to current and potential users whether or not the cost of such services is covered by the revenues generated. The basis for adopting the latter objective would be that the benef iciaries of an airport’s services are not only the direct users but also the community at large. In other words, it could be argued that the external benefits f rom an airport in a particular area more than cover any net internal costs.
