PPPs could reinvigorate US airport privatisation

According to Airports Council North America (ACI-NA), which completed a Capital Needs Survey last year, US airports need to complete USD71.3 billion worth of essential infrastructure projects before 2017. Just over half of this investment is to keep pace with demand and facilitate an increase in the utilisation of larger aircraft; the remaining funds are required for the rehabilitation, maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure.

And that is before the addition of new runways and terminals and before the country even thinks about building any new airports of significance (there hasn't been one since 1995). But with the government still strapped for cash, where is the money coming from?

Privatisation of the airports system has still not caught on in almost 20 years, but the public-private-partnership (PPP) could be the answer - as it has been in other parts of the world.