This book was written as an introductory text discussing the basic elements of airport finance. The material presented and the matters discussed are drawn from an international scene, reflecting the international nature of aviation and the need for those involved in the airport industry to understand the structure of airport finance in this context. The authors have selected the content based on their joint knowledge of airport administration and postexperience aviation training. The draft manuscript was used as a teaching text at the airport finance course at Loughborough University in May 1990 with twenty-four postgradu ate/postexperience participants. Based on that experience and comments from a number of readers and reviewers, the final form of the text is that presented here. Chapter 1 deals generally with the patterns of airport ownership on a world wide basis and describes the sources of revenues and expenditures, the manner in which they are reported, and the form in which airport accounts are re ported. Because systems and practices vary among countries, the material is presented on a comparative basis. In Chapter 2, Harry Kluckhohn describes the manner in which U.S. airports are financed. Not only will this be of interest to U.S. readers, but it will serve as a useful guide for others who may have little knowledge of how this highly developed financing system works.