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Bulgaria has delayed the deadline for bids to run Sofia’s airport for a fourth time to April 3, the transport ministry said on Friday, after potential bidders asked for more time.
The ministry has repeatedly offered extensions from the original Oct. 22 deadline for the 35-year concession.
The centre-right government relaunched the tender for Bulgaria’s main air hub in July and wants to raise 550 million euros ($630 million) from the deal.
Source: Reuters
Bulgaria has extended the deadline for submitting bids to run Sofia’s airport for a third time, to Feb. 5 following changes in the documents for the concession contract, transport ministry data showed on Wednesday.
Bulgaria has extended the deadline for submitting bids to run Sofia’s airport for a third time, to Feb. 5 following changes in the documents for the concession contract, transport ministry data showed on Wednesday.
The ministry has already pushed the timeline back several times from the original Oct. 22 due to numerous queries about the process and has now carried out some technical changes, a transport ministry spokeswoman said without elaborating.
The centre-right government re-launched the tender in July and is seeking to make 550 million euros ($630 million) from the concession over 35 years, 280 million of which should come in an upfront payment.
It expects the airport, the main air hub for the Balkan country which is now run by the state, to generate revenue of 3.46 billion euros over the whole period and up to 3.9 billion if extended to a maximum 46 years and seven months.
So far, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), Britain’s largest airport operator, has said it plans to bid. A spokesman for India’s GMR Group has said the group would consider bidding based on the final terms of the tender.
Germany’s Fraport has said it was interested in the process and Spain’s Aena has said it was studying a joint bid with Australian group First State.
French Aeroports de Paris, which has a 46 percent stake in Turkey’s TAV Airports as well as Switzerland’s Flughaven Zuerich have also been looking at it. ($1 = 0.8731 euros).
Source: Thomson Reuters
Bulgaria’s government said on Wednesday it approved a decision to open a tender for awarding a concession contract for operation of Sofia International Airport. The decision was drafted by the transport minister, the government said in a statement without providing further details.
In June 2016, the transport ministry launched a tender for a 35-year Sofia Airport concession contract, seeking at least 550 million levs ($326.7 million/281.2 million euro) as a one-off upfront payment. The tender was cancelled in April 2017 by the then caretaker government, which said that the concession woild lead to a rise in airport charges and a decline of passenger traffic.
After the current coalition government took office in May 2017, transport minister Ivaylo Moskovski said it intends to relaunch the tender and use the revenue from the concession to provide aid to indebted state-owned railways operator BDZ Holding.
Following Moskovski’s commitment to relaunch the procedure, German airport operator Fraport announced it was still very interested in winning a concession contract for operating Sofia Airport.
In 2006, Fraport Twin Star Airport Management, a 60/40 joint venture of Fraport and Bulgarian company BM Star, won a 35-year concession to manage the two airports.
Earlier this year, Bulgaria’s transport ministry said it will sign a 35-year concession contract for Plovdiv Airport with a tie-up comprising China-based HNA Group and Plovdiv Airport Invest company.
According to latest available statistics from the airport operator, passenger traffic at Sofia Airport rose by an annual 7.6% to 600,000 in April. Take-offs and landings at Sofia Airport totalled 5,274 in April, up 11% year-on-year. Cargo volume increased by 9.1% year-on-year to 1,770 tonnes in April. In 2017, Sofia Airport serviced 6.49 million passengers, up 30.3% year-on-year.
Source: SeeNews