The objectives and outcomes of airport privatisation

Airport privatisation is a controversial yet growing trend that has been accompanied by an expanding quantity of related research. However there has been very little attempt to synthesise this research and identify overarching findings that single studies do not produce. Hence it is the aim here to apply a systematic review of all the results in the academic literature. Both the objectives and outcomes of privatisation are considered although the literature appears surprisingly lacking in assessing whether these are closely aligned. A need for improvements in efficiency, coupled with a requirement for greater investment, appear to be the key drivers of privatisation but the evidence, as to whether there are actually performance benefits, is inconclusive. Improvements need to be made to the methods used, but given that the range of airport privatisation models has now become so diverse, more focus on governance and institutional structures may also yield useful conclusions.