Abstract
This paper is concerned with the performance of the former British Airports Authority (BAA) before and after privatisation, and more specifically with its technical efficiency. BAA was privatised under the Airports Act 1986, in July 1987. The paper considers to what extent technical efficiency changed following privatisation using data envelopment analysis. The study finds that privatisation had no noticeable impact on technical efficiency, and that technical efficiency within BAA is a composite of varying performance across the different airports operated by the company over time.