Two-sided platforms in airport privatization

•The recent literature has adopted the concept of two-sided platforms to describe the role of airports in the modern air transport industry.•We investigate whether privatization enhances the dynamic capabilities of airports so that they more closely resemble a two-sided platform.•We suspect that privatization may mark the birth of an entity that acts a facilitator, allowing for previously unexploited direct and indirect network effects.•We consider the case of the recent privatization of Brazilian airports.

This paper develops an empirical model to examine the relationship between ownership change and two-sided-platform formation in the air transport industry. We investigate whether privatization enhances the dynamic capabilities of airports so that they more closely resemble a two-sided platform. We study the case of the recent privatization of Brazilian airports. We find evidence of a permanent, ceteris paribus increase in demand triggered after the privatization program. The results are consistent with a preemption of assets with a view to expanding operations and so benefiting from the network effects offered by a two-sided platform.