Having totally failed in their initial intentions for opening concessions of airports, the Transport Ministry en passant adjusted their plans and made the first move towards one of the largest but also most controversial transactions of the kind in the last few years. Without raising unnecessary noise, it announced tender for selection of companies to establish legal, financial and environmental analysis for the concession of the Sofia airport plus the Airport Balchik that was bundled with it in the middle of 2011 upon insistence of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. The research will cost BGN109,000 (separated in lots of BGN54,000, BGN40,000 and BGN 15,000 respectively), and a single company can apply for only one of them.
Bids will be opened in the last week of March and the winners will have five months to perform the task. This means that autumn 2012 may see the actual concession process of Sofia Airport taking place.
Beyond doubt is that there will be much interest in the procedure.
Sofia Airport is the largest in the country – its capacity is more than five million people a year – including travellers, staff and welcomers. It serves the region with most developed economy in Bulgaria, and is also the most convenient arriving point for two of the country’s major ski resorts – Bansko and Borovets. Its profit for 2011 was BGN11 million after taxes, which is one of the best financial performance records among public companies in transport. The big problem is that the airport was not able to make use of all commercial opportunities offered by the new terminal. In practice in terms of its area, it can compare with the largest malls in the capital s, but because of unaffordable rents premises are empty. And this is certainly a huge business opportunity, the prospective concessionaire will hardly miss.
According to industry experts the most serious candidate for Sofia airport will be the current owner of the airports in Varna and Burgas – a consortium between the German company Fraport and the Varna-based holding Chimimport.
Over the past four years, the joint company made significant investments in the two main Black Sea airports of Bulgaria. A few days ago the newly overhauled track at Varna Airport was opened in the presence of Transport Minister Ivaylo Moscovski. According to the words of Vice President of Fraport, Alexander Zinell, two new terminals in both cities will be ready in 2013.
In addition to the experience already gained by these concessions one should not ignore the fact that Chimimport is the owner of the main comany operating flights through Sofia airport – Bulgaria Air. Moreover, Chimimport holds a stake in the aircraft servicing company Lufthansa Technik – also located at the capital’s airport. Among the potential candidates most likely are the Danish company Copenhagen Earports as well as the French Vince Group who participated in the competition for the airports in Varna and Burgas.
An airport is usually concessionedwhen it needsa lot of moneytobeinvested- as was the case withBurgas and Varna. But in the capital city has a completely new, modern and functional terminal plus a new track, built with international funding, President of the Bulgarian Aviation Forum Milcho Milanov told the BANKER .Therefore, rulers will need to give a meaningful answer to the question – why the state prefers not to use itself the opportunities offered by the capital city’s airport, preferring to transfer an already established and operating business to a private company?
