ABSTRACT
The institutional nature of airports has changed substantially over the last 40 years, from a public utility to a business with private involvement, with increasing variations of competition and regulation, management strategies, and policies. The trend towards privatization began in 1987 with BAA in the UK. It has led to an almost fully privatized industry in the UK. Only a few countries, such as Australia, followed the UK. In the rest of Europe, only a minority of airports have been privatized; those minority are only partially privatized, and very often with a minority share for a private investor (Gillen and Niemeier, 2008). There are no signs that US airports will be privatized in the near future.
