The PIF sovereign wealth fund in Saudi Arabia is set to buy a 10 percent stake in Heathrow airport. The bulk of the money in the PIF wealth fund is made up of oil profits. Saudi Arabia still has some of the world’s largest reserves, and will undoubtedly keep using the profits to buy up investments around the world.
The fund manages around $700 billion in assets, with funds used to do everything from investing in foreign infrastructure to buying professional sports teams.
This latter activity has been criticised by many people as a way to sportswash Saudi Arabia’s reputation for human rights violations. While this is undoubtedly true, it’s interesting that some countries feel the need to do this, while countries such as Canada and the US participate in genocide and other crimes with impunity, safe in the knowledge that establishment Western opinion will always support them. The key players in the Western hegemony will always have protection from the powerful, while states on the periphery that cooperate with them have to be mindful of public pressure in the imperial core.
That Saudi Arabia is buying a 10 percent stake in Heathrow airport shouldn’t make much difference to passengers in the near future. The Civil Aviation Authority has said that charges to passengers will come down from £31.57 in 2023 to £25.43 in 2024 and remain broadly flat until 2026. This is in spite of Heathrow management wanting to raise charges that go towards terminal maintenance, security, and baggage handling to £40.
While Britain’s key infrastructure remains in the hands of private investors though, they will always try to use their position to extract as much money as possible from their customers.
