A consortium comprising Munich Airport and France-based investor Meridiam has won a contract to manage Sofia International Airport in Bulgaria.
The announcement was made by Bulgarian Transport Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov.
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Zhelyazkov said that the Munich Airport and Meridiam consortium competed with four other bidders, including Aeroports de Paris and Manchester Airports Group.
The winning consortium will manage the operation of Sofia International Airport for 35 years. A formal contract is expected to be signed over the next 15 days.
Munich Airport and Meridiam have agreed to offer a concession fee of 32% of total revenue or a minimum of €24.5m ($27.5m) per annum.
The consortium will construct a third terminal within the next ten years and repair the two existing airport terminals.
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By GlobalDataOnce the new terminal becomes operational, there are plans to convert Terminal 1 to a cargo-only facility.
The Sofia Globe reported that the new airport operator will work to improve Sofia Airport’s infrastructure and aim to increase passenger numbers to 12.3 million by 2030 and 14.5 million by 2035.
The airport handled seven million passengers last year.
Austria-based construction firm Strabag, which also built Sofia Airport’s Terminal 2, is expected to take up the construction work at the airport.
This is the second attempt at selecting a concessionaire to operate Sofia Airport after the first process, launched in 2016, was scrapped by the Bulgarian Government in March 2017.
