London Heathrow Airport

1.1 Background

Airports can be considered as important national resources of most countries in the world. The main responsibility of an airport is in transportation of people and goods and in internal and global business. They are where the nation’s aviation system connects with other modes of transportation and where state responsibility for managing and regulating air traffic operations intersects with the role of governments that own and operate most airports. However, most major airports are owned and operated by the private sectors. This is due to several reasons such as to improve efficiency and economic performance, be more competitive as well as to maximize the community’s return from the airport assets in which public enterprise found out to be less efficient in term of its production and management.

London Heathrow Airport is one of the major airports owned and operated by privatized company formerly known as British Airport Authority (BAA plc), now Heathrow Airport Holdings. Heathrow Airport Holdings owns and operates four major airports in the UK, including London Heathrow, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton. However, in this case study, London Heathrow would be the writer’s main interest as to look at the effect of its privatization and find the possible impacts that it might have on the economy and society in general.

1.2 Definition of Airport Privatization

According to Airport Corporate Research Program’s Privatization Guidebook, Privatization refers to the shifting of governmental functions, responsibilities, control, and in some cases ownership, in whole or in part, to the private sponsors (ACRP, 2012, p.1). The term airport privatization is often understood to mean the transfer of an entire airport to ...

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...Airport Holdings is considered a good example of a privatized company operating in a regular market. Although there are about 41 airports in the UK handling passengers and cargo, the market is highly regionalized. In particularly, all the airports under the company including London Heathrow have almost a localized monopoly in the economically important south-east of England with only limited competition from other airports around the UK (Parker, 1998).

Works Cited

http://www.heathrowairport.com/about-us/company-news-and-information/company-information/our-history

http://www.leighfisher.com/global-experience/guidebook-considering-and-evaluating-airport-privatization#sthash.sMcjrO6S.dpuf

http://reason.org/news/show/apr-2013-airport-privatization#sthash.sVnRrSOF.dpuf

http://reason.org/search/results

http://www.heathrow-airport-guide.co.uk/history.html