That 'article' is an advertisement dressed up as what? Journalism?
In 1996, when the federal government still operated our major airports, it managed the movement of 67 million passengers a year.
Today, under the private ownership model, this number has grown to more than 154 million passengers.
My back of a fag packet calcs show that between
1986 and
1996 passenger numbers more than doubled. Between
1996 and
2016 passenger numbers also doubled. I'm not sure what this mob are trying to say but I think the great success they appear to be trumpeting would have happened anyway because Australians are travelling more, airfares are comparatively cheap, and ME carriers have been allowed to cherry pick the market. Its got stuff all to do with the 'private ownership model'. In fact passenger numbers have not grown as quickly as they did before airports were sold off.
What would really be interesting is a graph of ancillary service profits these operators have trousered compared to when the government charged a buck a day to park at the airport. (figuratively
)
Private ownership models and government policy rarely share common welfare goals.