Managing airport land development under regulatory uncertainty

Airport development is an inherently risky proposition and regulation can add to uncertainty in the business environment. The privatisation of Australian federal airports between 1996 and 2003 mainstreamed airport development into metropolitan non-residential property markets with all the normal commercial risks including adverse community reaction to the new phenomenon of the airport city because of the attendant environmental, economic and traffic impacts involved. The Australian Government's National Aviation Review in 2008-2009 canvassed this dissent, resulting in a raft of statutory and administrative-based recommendations. Against this backdrop, and drawing on interviews with airport representatives and the deliberations of industry forums, this paper explores the attitudes of airport planning and property managers to the revised regulatory regime announced in the Government's White Paper in December 2009. It provides a case study of corporate response to several dimensions of uncertainty accompanying regulatory change in the post-privatisation era.