The Carney government is quietly moving forward on plans to privatize some of Canada’s biggest airports. Four, possibly five airports are said to be on the list as the government looks to explore possibilities with global financial partners.
The airports up for possible privatization include Toronto Pearson, Trudeau in Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary, along with the possibility of the Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto’s waterfront. So far, it doesn’t appear that Edmonton or Ottawa, the fifth and sixth-busiest airports in Canada, are on the list under consideration.
Sources in Ottawa indicate the government could go to the financial markets with a Request for Information (RFI) within days. Issuing an RFI would set in motion a formal process where the government could gauge interest and find out about the capabilities of potential partners.
Carney is clearly looking to privatize
The government has not said straight up that it is set to privatize these massive pieces of infrastructure, but neither has Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed the idea.
“We will look at options for the airports so that they better serve Canadians, and so that the capital that is tied up in those airports can be redeployed potentially in other ventures that will grow our economy,” Carney said
The prime minister even said that he is open to the idea of foreign investors buying into Canada’s airports.
Right now, Canada’s major airports sit on land owned by the federal government, but they are operated through independent not-for-profit boards.
Current system is the worst of both worlds
Duncan Dee, a long-time airline executive and former Chief Operating Officer for Air Canada, said he supports plans to privatize the major airports, saying the current system costs too much and makes flying less accessible for consumers.
“I actually argue that we already have a privatized system in Canada. It’s just not called privatized,” Dee said.
“You know, we have these airport authorities that already operate as if they were private companies, but we don’t have the same oversight that a full privatization would allow.”
Dee, who recently was part of an executive team that tried to rescue Spirit Airlines, the ultra-low cost carrier in the United States, said in Canada, airlines can’t last due to the fee structures.
“Pearson has definitely some of the highest fees and charges, landing fees, rent, counter fees, everything like that in the world,” Dee said.
He pointed to the $2.1-million annual salary of Deborah Flint, the CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which operates Pearson. That’s a huge private-sector-style salary for someone running a not-for-profit, especially compared to the $325,000 earned by Kathryn Garcia as the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
USA keeps its airports mostly public, Europe embraces private
Most major airports in the United States operate on a public ownership model while many airports in the Europe are privately held.
PSP Investments, which manages the pension funds of federal public servants, owns a majority stake in seven airports — six in Europe and one in Puerto Rico. CPP Investments, which invests on behalf of the Canada Pension Plan, owns a minority stake in the company that owns the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris along with 25 other airports.
A variety of other pension plans such as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, OMERS and Caisse de dépôt in Quebec have held ownership stakes in the past.
While there is chatter in the aviation industry, in the financial world and in government circles, no one seems to know for sure just what the government will do, only that Carney and his team are moving slowing towards exploring privatization.
The one thing that every source across all sectors said was that, if the government moves ahead, they will have to change the governance structure of the airports and they will need to get the regulations right.
The devil will be in the details and while privatizing these airports could unlock capital to pay for other infrastructure across Canada and could lead to lower fares and increased competition — it could also be an unmitigated disaster.
In this instance, caution and getting it right will be what matters.
