The extensive political debates inside and outside the Portuguese parliament on the future and adequate control over ANA E.P. often failed to recognize the long and changing history of Portuguese airport regulation. Privatization of the national airport operator is a fairly recent episode if seen from the perspective of continuous law making, bureaucratic and technocratic decision making and institution building related to national airport operations and management. Also, the fact that ANA was profitable during extensive periods required careful argumentation by the political protagonists. The legal situation leading to the transfer of public assets into an entity governed by private commercial and corporate law was not very clear during the critical phases of the process.