Anatomy of a rare new US commercial airport – Manassas (Washington DC’s fourth)

The last few years have seen the conversion of several general aviation airports into commercial air service entities in the USA, some of them publicly operated, some privately.

This goes against the grain, so to speak, because the general trend in the US has been away from private sector whole-airport leasing (not that it ever took off in that direction to start with, with only two live, in situ privatisations right now, despite getting a boost during the first president Trump administration).

But the omnipresent public-private partnership, known as the P3 in the US, continues to gain momentum - a structure by which a private entity will get access to the leasing of (usually) a terminal building for a lengthy period of time by committing funds to building, operating and managing it successfully.

The long-established Avports - originally a division of Pan Am, and which celebrates its centenary next year - is a prime mover in these activities, and in 2023 concluded a 40-year P3 agreement to develop a commercial airline-focused terminal at Manassas Airport, south of Washington D.C., at some expense.

Now the terminal is closer to opening (spring 2027), the search is on for airlines - probably LCCs - to justify the expense. As Manassas, which has been renamed as a Washington airport, is so close to the capital - where the federal government wants to lavish USD22 billion on the Dulles airport and is investigating private-sector financing and public-private partnerships to do so - this Avports project will be long under scrutiny.