This paper examines the relation between the government and the municipalities during the construction of the main airports in Sweden in the period 1921-1967. It is shown that after the initial phase, when the municipalities were assigned the responsibility for financing and constructing airports, a substantial government intervention occurred between 1935 and 1950. The introduction of a market-oriented transport policy in the 1950s, however, limited the government funds for investments in airports during the post-war period, forcing the municipalities to share the financial responsibilities for such infrastructure. In turn, this meant that the mode of regulating the infrastructure for civil aviation diverged from the common national regulatory pattern of infrastructure in Sweden.