THE Queensland Government has gone outside its normal budget processes six weeks before the state budget is to be brought down by putting its entire interest in airports on the market to fund hospital expansions. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday announced the sale of Cairns, Mackay and Mt Isa airports, as well as the state Government's 12 per cent stake in Brisbane Airport, to fund the construction of a new hospital in Mackay and a major upgrading of the Cairns Hospital. Join discussion...

Six teams — one including some of the same players who paid $1.82 billion to lease the Chicago Skyway — will vie for the right to make Midway Airport the nation’s first privately-run commercial airport. Airport experts and Wall Street giants joined the competition for a 50-plus-year concession that could generate as much as $3 billion to shore up city pensions and rebuild Chicago’s aging infrastructure. Join discussion...

Chicago has announced plans to privatize its second-largest commercial airport, Midway Airport, through a lease being offered to private investors under a public-private partnership. In a move seen as advancing yet further the agenda of turning over pieces of the U.S. public infrastructure to private profiteers, Mayor Richard Daley said plans are being made to turn Midway into the nation's first privately run airport under a PPP. Join discussion...