Low-cost Airlines Want to Join in on the Sofia Airport Concession

The deadline for submitting tenders for the Sofia Airport concession was extended due to the great interest of the candidates in the procedure. This was announced by Minister of Transport Rosen Zhelyazkov during the forum "Entrepreneurship, Development, Perspectives", which took place in Pomorie. In his words, specifically interested in the airport are budget airlines, reports money.bg

"The interest of the low-cost companies at Sofia Airport is enormous, many of the big European operators are asking questions, so we extended the bidding period in the concession procedure by January 29," Zhelyazkov said, quoted by the GERB press office. The Secretary of State has not identified specific companies that have shown interest in the airport concession. The most significant presence at the airport in the capital by low-cost companies are the Hungarian WizzAir and the Irish Ryanair . Flights from and to Sofia also have the British EasyJet. However, these companies do not develop business as airport operators.

So far confirmed interest in the concession comes from the British company Manchester Airport Group (MAG), which confirmed in October that they will participate in the procedure together with the Chinese Beijing Engineering Engeneering Group. The company operates three airports in the UK - Manchester, London Stansted and the East Midlands.

Later it became clear that the Spanish AENA would also be included in the race for Sofia Airport. It is the world's largest airport operator by number of passengers, managing 46 airports in Spain, holding a share of Luton Airport in London and managing another 15 airports in South America. As possible participants in the procedure were also the Spanish Ferrovial, which manages airports in the UK and has...