Renewed efforts to privatize Midway International Airport may not clear the runway.
After distancing himself from a Midway deal during last year's election, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is preparing to put the airport on the market again. But to avoid another controversy like the city's parking meter deal, he reportedly wants a shorter lease and more restrictions, which investors won't like.
Huge private infrastructure funds still are interested in concessions to run airports, such as a 40-year deal for Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, now nearing final approval by the Federal Aviation Administration. But the price investors are willing to pay is about half the going rate before the financial crisis scuttled the city's original $2.5 billion deal to lease Midway for 99 years, according to airport privatization experts.
The original effort promised to pay off $1.2 billion in airport debt and other charges and net more than $1 billion for city pension funds and other needs. But with airport pricing suppressed and $200 million more debt added in 2011, it will be much harder to retire the city's IOU and have money left over, particularly if Mr. Emanuel demands a shorter lease and more control over the private operator.
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