ABSTRACT
As airports take over from the sea ports as the major confluence of routes for the carriage of people and goods, their place in the conduct of world trade becomes increasingly prominent. An additional very real stimulus for the growth of their importance in national life is the trend towards commercialisation: the search for profit and the introduction of competition. The change from airports as landing fields to airports as big business has been driven by the change of many from state, or local authority, to private
ownership. Even where the regional authority has maintained a controlling or significant interest, many airports are being treated as commercial enterprises with a profit motive.
