Britain's current airport debacle is the predictable and predicted outcome of ill-conceived airport privatisation. Some things - steel mills for example - can be easily privatised; others cannot, as America's problems in contracting security arrangements made clear. The problems Britain has encountered in privatising its railroads show that, at the very least, extreme care must be taken in the privatisation of vital public services.

During the Clinton administration, privatisation of the US air traffic control system was hotly debated, and while aspects of privatising air traffic control systems and airports are not identical, they are sufficiently similar that the analysis may be relevant here. The US Council of Economic Advisers, of which I was a member and then chairman, after careful analysis, expressed strong reservations partly because airports (and air traffic control systems) are almost inevitably virtual or actual monopolies. It is just too risky to privatise an entity that will not face competition. The UK airports crisis, triggered by the recent discovery of a terrorist plot to blow up aircraft, showed the mismatch between the interests of a private operator and those of users - both the airlines and, more importantly, their customers.