Public, private and mixed ownership and the performance of international airlines

Many airlines are neither completely public nor private enterprises but have hybrid or mixed public-private ownership. Theory and evidence regarding the performance of private, public and mixed ownership are addressed in the context of the international airline industry. The study empirically examines the influence of an airline's ownership structure on multiple dimensions of its performance. In general, the results indicate that public sector airlines under-perform relative private sector airlines. In addition, we find that airlines with mixed ownership tend to perform better than public sector airlines, but worse than private sector carriers.