Schiphol working city - 2006

The privatised British Airports Authority generates most of its revenue in 1998 (at the time of my study 'Where do we land?') from activities that are not directly related to air traffic: letting of shops, development of real estate, collection of parking fees.

These are also the most lucrative activities for Schiphol. When the Balkenende government was about to privatise Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in 2006, the question was whether it realised this sufficiently. That is why we started an investigation that led to the Initiative Memorandum 'The sale of an airport, the privatisation of a working city'. We reported that Schiphol represents a very significant development value that would not have been raised on the stock exchange. In the end, the privatisation did not take place.