Bulgaria Green Lights Five Bidders for Sofia Airport

Bulgarian authorities said they had accepted the offers of all five international bidders for the concession for Sofia Airport, the Bulgarian transport authority confirmed on Thursday.

Transport Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov announced that the selection procedure that will give the selected consortium a 35-year right to develop Bulgaria's largest airport would be completed by the beginning of June.

Among the five bidders are Manchester Airports Group, a UK-based company that operates three airports, including London Stansted, Manchester and the East Midlands cargo airport.

The company transports close to 60 million travelers and 745,000 tons of cargo per year. All of the company's airports have seen a major increase in traveler numbers and cargo of between 30 and 40 per cent since the company took over managing them.

MAG will partner up with Chinese construction company Beijing Construction and Engineering Group, BCEG - one of the top 50 construction firms worldwide.

Another bidder, Aeroports de Paris Group, ADP, operates three airports in the French capital - Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Le Bourget, as well as 23 others internationally.

A majority state-owned company, ADP airports handled 228 million passengers in 2017, earning over 4.5 billion euros in revenue.

The German Fraport company is the next large bidder. The firm operates Frankfurt airport, which handled 70 million passengers in 2018 and is the biggest in the country. It already runs two airports in Bulgaria, at Varna and Burgas, alongside its Varna-based partner Himimport.

The third bidder is the second largest German state-owned airport after Frankfurt - Munich airport, alongside the French Meridiam infrastructure fund, which has global experience in the...