reason FOUNDATION
Robert Poole
19 Feb 2026
Several months ago, I received an email from an airport consultant in the United Kingdom. He was preparing a global report on the prospects for whole-airport long-term public-private partnerships and wanted my outlook for the United States. I wrote back that no such projects were on the horizon in the United States and had explained why in my recent policy paper: primarily, the lack of any airport owners who are open to this approach.
Thus, when the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a request for information (RFI) on a potential project to expand and modernize federally owned Washington Dulles International Airport, I was both surprised and pleased. Dulles International is far from a first-rate airport for the capital city of the world’s most economically productive nation...The transportation department’s RFI seeks bold visions for a world-class international airport and explicitly refers to long-term public-private partnerships (P3s) as a vehicle to bring this about...
