от Пароль » 22 Сеп 2017 11:14
„The European Commission (EC) has approved the Bulgarian Transport Ministry’s plan to
award a concession to revamp and develop Sofia Airport, but has insisted that any private investor
would need to be vetted by the Commission. The news was announced by Deputy Transport Minister
Kamen Kichev at the signing of a contract for the construction of a new control tower at the airport
between state-run enterprise Air Traffic Control and local construction firm Glavbolgarstroy. However, it
was not clear whether the entire airport or only parts of it will be given under concession.
The reason that the airport concession needs EC approval is that the construction of the airport’s second
passenger terminal was funded in part with EUR 50 million from the EU’s pre-accession programme ISPA.
The terminal’s construction was also financed by loans from the European Investment Bank and Kuwait
Fund for Arab Economic Development. Any future private investor will have to pay off the loans for
Terminal 2. An economic analysis on the benefits of a potential concession is currently underway and the
final decision will be made once the analysis is complete.
State company Airport Sofia, which is the current manager of the airport, plans to upgrade
the existing two terminals and the adjacent infrastructure with its own funds. However, a
private investor is needed to build new terminals. Bulgaria’s two major Black Sea airports at Varna and
Bourgas are being managed by a joint venture between Fraport and a local firm, owned by industrial conglomerate Chimimport.
The Transport Ministry has so far made abortive efforts to pick concessionaires for the other airports in Rousse,
Gorna Oryahovitsa and part of the Plovdiv airport.
