ABSTRACT
Air transport is more highly developed and more extensively used in the United States than in any other part of the world. As a result US airports dominate the world’s airport industry providing, as shown in the opening chapter (pp. 15-23), a very high proportion of the world’s largest airports. Airports outside the United States generally have many similarities in terms of patterns of ownership, of administration and of sources of finance and revenue. Historically, however, US airports have developed particular financial and administrative structures which differentiate them from airports in other parts of the world. These differences occur, first of all, because of the particular relationships that US airports have with the airlines; second, because of the practice of renting or leasing large amounts of terminal space or even entire terminals to individual airlines; finally because the sources of finance available in the United States for airport investment are quite different from those available in other countries. These factors have given US airports unique economic and financial characteristics. It is for this reason that US practice deserves more detailed assessment.
