Worldwide, 13 new airport public-private partnerships were launched in 2025, with a total value of $9.83 billion, according to Reason Foundation’s Annual Aviation Infrastructure Report.
The paper finds that global airport public-private partnership deal values jumped to $51.96 billion across 79 projects in 2025, exceeding the pre-pandemic 2019 level of $51 billion and significantly above the 2020 low of $11 billion.
The annual report shows that 49% of global passenger air traffic now passes through airports with significant private investment and management. Today, over 80% of regional passenger traffic in Latin America and Europe goes through privately-backed airports, but just 7% of traffic in the US and North America does. London Heathrow, Paris de Gaulle, Rome Fiumicino, Zürich, Istanbul, Vienna, and Melbourne are some of the major airports privately managed.
The paper also finds that the remote air traffic control tower market is now projected to grow from $537 million in 2025 to $3.3 billion by 2035.
