Court of Audit approves contract for the extension of Athens International Airport concession

The contract regarding the extension of the concession period for Athens International Airport, “El. Venizelos” by 20 years has now received “green light” by the Court of Audit. Following this development, the way for the ratification of the contract by the Hellenic Parliament opens up, which will simultaneously trigger a new round of large investments, including the large-scale expansion of the Airport’s Terminal.

Now, with the Court of Audit’s approval, the Ministry of Finance is expected to send the contract to the European Commission, and more specifically to to DG Comp. Finally, “El. Venizelos” Airport will proceed to the payment of HRADF of the price that has reached 1.115bn euros (excl. VAT, VAT incl.: 1,38bn euros), making for the largest revenue of HRADF for 2018. All the above, according to secure information, are estimated to be completed by the end of the year.

The next target for Athens International Airport is to launch the tender for the sale of 30%, during the first 2 months of 2019, which will also make clear the official interest of investors for “El. Venizelos”. The biggest inducement to attract them is, of course, the massive increase in passenger traffic, which by the end of 2017 had reached 75% compared to 5 years earlier (in 2012), and this year it is expected to break all records with more than 24m passengers.

 

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com