David Gillen, Len Henriksson, Bill Morrison
Airport Financing, Costing, Pricing and Performance

The paper takes a sample of costs and prices at 35 airports to evaluate the effects of the 1995 
National Airports Policy on airport investment, service delivery, pricing and financing. It 
examines costs and investment, how they varied with traffic level, and the 'fiscal capacity' and 'fiscal effort' of the sample airports. It also considers the integration of airline and airport policy. The main recommendation is that National Airport System airports be split into two tiers, one including the largest eight, to remain under lease from Transport Canada, and the second including all smaller NAS airports, to be fully privatized eventually. Lease payments from the largest should be placed in an investment fund, to which all airports would have access. The report also makes recommendations on the basis for lease payments, airport regulation, treatment of gates and slots to ease market entry by carriers, and airport taxation.