"For airports, privatization is not an all or nothing solution," said moderator Joyce Carter, starting off the discussions at the "Privatization - The Good, The Bad and The Unknown" session on Tuesday. The session, despite being later in the day, was standing-room-only, illustrating how important this topic is in the industry right now. The million-dollar question? "What’s the right path forward?" Carter had a variety of questions for the panelists, designed to help attendees understand the issues -- from different perspectives, airport sizes and locations.

Robert Collins, Managing Partner at 3i Infrastructure, shed some light on why there is so much interest in P3s and privatization. Some of the reasons from an investor perspective, he said, were: airlines being able to predict landing fees over time; being able to pull out trapped equity; and "the ability to come in and help unlock value and to do things faster, better and cheaper."

Shane Harbinson, Assistant Director,-Aviation Department, City of Austin, shed some light on how a privatization model worked well for them when embarking on terminal renovations and other infrastructure projects. "Our success is using the long-term lease agreement," he explained, mentioning that their "terminal within a terminal" project came in at about half the cost because of this model.

Tom Ruth, President & CEO, Edmonton Regional Airports Authority, gave some insight into how they partnered with investors for some projects, including a premium outlet mall. The last two years there has been some "really explosive" commercial development, he said, including the premium outlet mall, the Alberta Aerospace and Technology Centre’s helicopter simulator, a Costco that is set to open soon and a Dogtopia, just to name a few. Ruth also posed a couple of questions for the attendees to ponder: We’re already squeezing every nickel we can, what is a private investor going to do differently? And, how are they not going to raise fees?

Michael Minerva, Vice President, Government and Airport Affairs, American Airlines, addressed the topic from an airline perspective, at a time when airlines are "investing heavily" in infrastructure. He brought up the concern about the public procurement process being used in privatization, and how that could potentially reduce the value/benefits of the privatization. "Private operators can help drive more revenue in some instances," he said. "But that gap may close as the public airports get better at it."

Lysa Scully, General Manager, La Guardia Airport, perhaps summed it up best when she said, "We don’t want to privatize to the detriment of the customer." The key objective here is to remember that the goal is not just a better bottomline, but a satisfied customer.