Australia's approach to airport charges: The Sydney Airport experience

Australia has been progressive by world standards in its programme of airport privatisation and the adoption of a ‘light-handed’ regime of airport regulation. This paper discusses Sydney Airport's experience in negotiating commercial pricing agreements with airlines in the context of the light-handed regime and the Australian infrastructure access arrangements. It concludes that contractual relationships in an environment of informal regulation are able to provide sound, and arguably superior, outcomes to formal price regulation.