Is Canadian airport privatisation really back on the agenda or is it just another false dawn?

Throughout most of the world the privatisation of airports, often by lease, is by now long established. That isn't the case in the USA, where it has been tried since 1996 up until 2019 when the last major attempt floundered as so many others have done before.

In Canada everyone thought the perfect system, one that dates back to the 1990s, had already been introduced - mainly public sector ownership of the main airports by not-for-profit stakeholder organisations which precluded private investment.

But those airports simply aren't making enough money for the government even though it charges them hefty annual ground rents as it still owns the land in most cases.

Now, at the fourth attempt, the government, which had already opened the door in 2025 to investment by the country's pension funds in its own airports - which they previously were not allowed to do - will try to set up a sovereign wealth fund that will be partly funded by capital sales at the airports, thus permitting entities from all over the world, not just Canada's pension funds, to buy a piece of the action.

It is still early days and the precise method(s) the government will choose to achieve its aims are still not known. The usual concerns, particularly about higher fares, are already being aired while only two of the airport operators have voiced support for privatisation.

It is already clear from examples elsewhere that privatisation must go hand in hand with sensible regulation not wild deregulation and that, critically, airports must only be privatised where it is evident that will improve efficiency.