The ambitious plans of the transport ministry to fill some of the gaps in the national budget by concessioning certain airports are about to fall through. On 1 April 2010 the ministry presented to journalists the programme for development of public-private partnership in this area, which envisaged to attract nearly BGN1billion in investment in the next few years. The intention was to seek candidates for the airports in Ruse, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Stara Zagora, cargo and passenger terminal in Plovdiv, and the construction of the freight terminal at Sofia Airport. Deputy Transport Minister Kamen Kichev even said then that priority will be given to the sites in Ruse and Stara Zagora, because interest have already been expressed in them.
The Date of 1 April, however, definitely played a practical joke to rulers and nearly two years later, nothing of the original objectives has been fulfilled. During this period three procedures were announced – for the civil airports in Rousse and Gorna Oryahovitsa and for the freight terminal in Plovdiv. But only a few days ago the Cabinet terminated the concession procedure of the latter as by December 7, 2011 no offer was submitted, even though the deadline had been extended twice.
Now they are to prepare a new procedure, this time letting the whole airport. The ministry experts of Ivaylo Moscovski intend to include the new passenger terminal built in 2009 with the idea to attract more investors.
Because of the current concessioning apiece it can be safely predicted that candidates will be missing for the other two airports. The final date for submission of bids for Gorna Oryahovitsa Airport is March 30, and for the airport in Rousse – 20 April, and for the two sites this is the extended period for receiving financial proposals.
The situation with them is even more absurd than in Plovdiv, because the state has put on the table old facilities and too many requirements to the bidders.
Undecided is the situation with the airport in Stara Zagora, too. Despite calls by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov at the end of September last year to clarify whose property it is (which is now shared between the ministries of transport and defence). PM wanted the facility concessioned or given back to the local municipality, but nothing tangible has been done. The only useful purpose of the airport was … sheltering the heavy duty trucks, whose movement was halted by heavy snowfalls in early February.
According to experts, a serious investor can be interested by Bulgaria’s smaller civil airports if they are united together and their future owners may choose which of them to develop as a passenger and which as cargo handling ones. Another option is to cut some of the requirements and think about turning some of the sites into playgrounds for amateur aviation.
