ABSTRACT
Airport privatisation has been - and still is - on the agenda of national air transport policies of many countries throughout the world. This chapter analyses the determinants of the appropriate design of ownership structures in the airport sector and of the institutional setting for airport service markets. It describes the choice of airport ownership structures and the design of airport regulation as a contract problem. The chapter evaluates alternative governance structures and identifies complementarities between the distribution of ownership rights and the design of the institutional setting within which privatised airports operate. It explores some general guidelines on how to appropriately design airport privatisation policy will be derived from the results achieved so far. To achieve efficient outcomes of airport privatisation, the governance structure that defines the relationship between airport company, regulator, and airport users has to be designed carefully to protect the reasonable interests of airport companies and airport users.
