Purpose: This article aims to describe the development and evolution of the airports and air transport industry in Colombia. During the past fifteen years Colombia has witnessed a remarkably rapid and dynamic growth in air transport.This period coincides with the establishment and continuous implementation of public policy specifically designed for the air transport sector and airports.Design/methodology: The evolution of air transport in Colombia is evaluated descriptively through the analysis of air transport and socio-economic historical data. The impact of public and investment policies is analyzed through a causeeffect approach.Findings: This paper describes how the air transport/airport industry in Colombia has been directly and positively affected by the implementation of public policies and other legislation, while measuring the effect and impact of this industry on the Colombian economy.Originality/value: This work fills a notorious deficiency in specialized literature concerning air transport in Colombia and Latin America in all its aspects and dimensions.

1 RESUMENDesde finales de la década de 1980 y hasta el presente, los aeropuertos de muchos países, desarrollados y en vías de desarrollo, vienen experimentando un gran cambio, sobre todo en lo que se refiere a la gestión y operación de los mismos. Ha habido una transición de la gestión del sector público al privado. El proceso de privatización de los aeropuertos está principalmente asociado con la transferencia de la gestión y operación de empresas públicas a privadas. Este cambio fue acompañado por la formulación y ejecución de diferentes formas de privatización. El presente trabajo describe y analiza las diferentes razones y motivaciones, que originaron e impulsaron esta transformación, como así también su desarrollo y evolución, desde una perspectiva científica. Y como caso de estudio, se presenta el proceso de privatización aeroportuaria desarrollado en Colombia. PALABRAS CLAVE:aeropuertos, privatización, política pública, liberalización, transporte aéreo. Oscar Díaz Olariaga POLÍTICAS DE PRIVATIZACIÓN DE AEROPUERTOS. EL CASO DE COLOMBIA ABSTRACTSince the late 1980s and to the present, airports in many developed and developing countries are experiencing major changes, especially in terms of airport management and operation. There has been a transition from public to private sector management. The privatization process of the airports is mainly associated with the transfer of the management and operation from public to private companies. This change was accompanied by the formulation and execution of different forms of privatization. The present article describes and analyzes the different reasons and motivations that originated and promoted this transformation, as well as its development and evolution, from a scientific perspective. As a case study is presented the process of airport privatization that was developed in Colombia.

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Since the mid-1990s, Colombia’s main airports (including those with the highest traffic) have been privatized, transferring governance to private operators. The remaining airports in the network (the smallest ones) continue with public governance. Based on this, the objective of this research article is to know, analyse and even measure the airport efficiency in a context of structural reform and at the same time compare this with the measure in airports with public governance. The methodology used to carry out the study is the Data Envelopment Analysis, and this methodology uses only “technical variables” (that is, only those related to infrastructure). The main results of the research reveal higher efficiency indices in the major (or more important) airports, almost all of them under private governance, although there is also a group of them (usually very small airports) with very low efficiency levels.