Whenever I speak at investment conferences, I like to point out that we invest in a number of publicly traded airports. I even list them: Spain’s Aena. Aéroports de Paris. Zurich Airport. Airports of Thailand. Two of the world’s largest operators, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste and Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, trade in Mexico.
Almost invariably, I get a bunch of blank stares because there are no publicly traded airports in the United States. Which is a shame — not only for investors, but for passengers.
Air travel has rarely been healthier. This past year the world’s airports handled a record 9.8 billion passengers, according to Airports Council International, inching ever closer to the 10 billion mark. The 20 busiest airports alone moved 1.59 billion travelers, roughly 16 percent of everyone who flew. Here at home, U.S. travel-agency air ticket sales topped $9.8 billion in May, up 15 percent from a year earlier, even as the number of trips has stayed f
