Etiqueta: Bulgaria airport

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Bulgaria extends bid deadline for Sofia airport tender again

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

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Low-cost Airlines Want to Join in on the Sofia Airport Concession

The deadline for submitting tenders for the Sofia Airport concession was extended due to the great interest of the candidates in the procedure. This was announced by Minister of Transport Rosen Zhelyazkov during the forum «Entrepreneurship, Development, Perspectives», which took place in Pomorie. In his words, specifically interested in the airport are budget airlines, reports money.bg

«The interest of the low-cost companies at Sofia Airport is enormous, many of the big European operators are asking questions, so we extended the bidding period in the concession procedure by January 29,» Zhelyazkov said, quoted by the GERB press office. The Secretary of State has not identified specific companies that have shown interest in the airport concession. The most significant presence at the airport in the capital by low-cost companies are the Hungarian WizzAir and the Irish Ryanair . Flights from and to Sofia also have the British EasyJet. However, these companies do not develop business as airport operators.

So far confirmed interest in the concession comes from the British company Manchester Airport Group (MAG), which confirmed in October that they will participate in the procedure together with the Chinese Beijing Engineering Engeneering Group. The company operates three airports in the UK – Manchester, London Stansted and the East Midlands.

Later it became clear that the Spanish AENA would also be included in the race for Sofia Airport. It is the world’s largest airport operator by number of passengers, managing 46 airports in Spain, holding a share of Luton Airport in London and managing another 15 airports in South America. As possible participants in the procedure were also the Spanish Ferrovial, which manages airports in the UK and has participated in Heathrow, as well as several French companies. They are Bouygues, as well as Groupe ADP, which operates 26 airports, including Paris’ Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Boulevard. Participation can also be made by the airport operator in Burgas and Varna Fraport, as well as by another French company – Alliance Avia. According to the information, there could also be a Greek side with the company Terna, as well as with Italian companies.

Source: Novonite

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Chinese consortium reportedly abandoned plans for Plovdiv airport

The consortium led by the Chinese group HNA which won the 35-year concession contract for Plovdiv Airport in Bulgaria will not sign the contract, daily Maritsa reported quoting unofficial sources. The deadline for the signing of the contract expires on July 18.

The Chinese investor apparently lost interest in the deal after the sudden death of the president of the corporation Wang Jian, who died three weeks ago in an accident in France. Separately, the group has accumulated huge debts over the past years and cut its investment programme around the world.

In March this year, the government awarded a 35-year concession for Plovdiv Airport to a consortium of HNA and Dutch-registered Plovdiv Airport Invest BV. The consortium pledged to invest at least €79.1mn within five years after the concession deal was signed, including on repairs, rehabilitation and maintenance of existing infrastructure and new construction.

The consortium has not notified the ministry of transport of any intention of meeting government officials and signing the contract, the daily reported. The government is expected to invite the second-ranked candidate for discussions. But a final decision should be formally taken on July 18 at the expiry of the deadline.

Under the ministry’s procedures, after the dropout of the first-placed candidate the authorities should invite the second-ranked candidate. In this case, this is the consortium formed by the major cargo and freight company PIMK and Trakia Economic Zone (one of the biggest economic projects in Bulgaria). PIMK recently won the concession for the intermodal terminal near Plovdiv.