Development of air transport industry in the Asia-Pacific region

The volume of air passengers and cargo in the Asia-Pacific region has grown significantly over the past decade due to the strong impetus of economic growth as well as trade and economic integration at both the regional and global levels. Although public funds have been the main source of financing for airports in most parts of the region, governments have increasingly resorted to privatization or are seriously considering it as a form of private sector participation enabling new airports to be built or existing airports to be upgraded. The present paper provides a brief survey of airport privatization in the Asia-Pacific region, discusses the relevant issues, and introduces the following five papers published in this special section on the air transport industry in the Asia-Pacific region.