Bulgarian airport tender reaches second stage

Lorna Strickland

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Five consortia have been selected to contest the bid to manage Varna and Bourgas airports

Five consortia are to proceed to the second tendering stage to manage the Black Sea airports of Varna and Bourgas in Bulgaria. They are Copenhagen Airports; a partnership between Fraport -Frankfurt Airport Services and Bulgarian company BM Star; Aeroports de Paris/Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons; Vinci Airports-Vinci Concessions; and the Hochtief Airport/Albena consortium. The tender incorporates the management of the airports' commercial areas, including duty-free.

US firm Dutko Group, Corporation America/American International Airports and the partnership between Nice Côte d'Azur and Gdansk Lech Walesa airports have been eliminated from the running, subject to appeal.

The five remaining companies will be asked to deposit Lev300,000 ($205,479) to be considered for the next stage of bidding. The contract for the two airports will run for 35 years with the option to extend for a further 15 years. Deadline for final applications is March 7 2005. Bid weightings are 40% for investment plans, 30% for environmental and social developments of the two sites and 30% for concession rights payment scheme.

Passenger traffic at Bourgas has grown by 30% for each of the past three years, and reached 1.2m in 2003. Varna airport welcomed 1.1m passengers last year. Bulgarian Duty Free Association chairman Radostin Genov estimates that the airports' duty-free stores, currently managed by the landlords, generate about Eu1m ($1.33m) in annual turnover.