Sweden aviation: part one – Sweden considers partial Stockholm Arlanda privatisation, perhaps others

In Denmark, Copenhagen Airport was partially privatised two decades ago, but there has been little interest in airport privatisation in Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland).

A reason is that four of those countries have one major airport (or a handful) and a lot of isolated regional ones, which in the worst-case scenario could be asset-stripped and closed down by a private owner, leaving inhabitants isolated.

Out of the blue the Swedish government has published a report which seems to indicate it is gravitating towards a partial privatisation solution for Stockholm's Arlanda Airport - and possibly two others - to meet the challenge of infrastructure needs brought about by closure of other airports.

Investors would be attracted to Arlanda, and probably also Gothenburg and Malmö airports. For their part, though, the caveat would be ensuring certainty about Sweden's developing environmental policy.

This is part one of a two-part report.