Public Procurement

Airport Deal Sealed

May 20, 2013 /

As previously mentioned in this page, “Tendering of Third Airport in Istanbul” is a very important event with various consequences and opportunities to many parties. In a nutshell, this airport is expected to be the hub of air traffic between East and West and from Africa to Europe. Full capacity will be at 150 million passengers per year and there will be 6 runways eventually. Total terminal area will be 1.400.000 m2 at the final stage and tender also bestows some privileges and revenues on management of the airport.

On these grounds, firstly tender specification documents have been sold to 100.000 TRY each. DHMİ (Directorate General of State Airports Authority) already had 1.700.000 TRY (725.000 EUR) revenue from the sale of specifications. Secondly, tender has been held on May 3rd, 2013 and results of closed bidding process – for rent to be paid to DHMİ for 25 years – have been revealed as such:

  • IC Içtaş/ Fraport:                                  €20.00 bn + VAT
  • Limak/Kolin/Cengiz/Ma-Pa/Kalyon: €12.68 bn + VAT
  • TAV Airports Holding                           €9.00 bn + VAT
  • Makyol İnşaat:                                      €4.00 bn + VAT

Following that, open bidding stage took place and lowest bidder decided to withdraw. After competitive and contentious rounds Limak leaded consortium succeeded with their €22.15 bn bid. This sum plus the VAT will be paid to DHMİ over 25 years in return of operating the airport. When it comes to construction side, costs are expected to be around €10 bn. But Ebru Özdemir, a board member at Limak, the only airport operator in the winning consortium, discounted financing concerns, emphasising that the airport would be built in phases.

airport contr sign

Final step in this stage was signing the contract and it has been realized today with a ceremony. Particular importance of the date is 80th anniversary of DHMİ’s establishment. In this regard, Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications for the Republic of Turkey Mr Binali Yıldırım made a speech and congratulated all the participants. He stated that: “It has been a fair and transparent contest. This airport will address Turkey’s future for the next 30 to 50 years.” Mr Yıldırım also highlighted the enormous expansion of transfer passenger figures that use Istanbul as a hub, transformation in the Turkish civil aviation, employment to be created with this project and environmental details of project.

As a sign, figures released show that Ataturk Airport handled 41.454.065 passengers in 2012. For the first quarter of this year there is a 23 per cent increase on the same period in 2012 and 49 per cent increase on the first three months of 2011. According to Financial Times, “although some industry figures cast doubt on the realism of the targets, suggesting that the airport’s maximum capacity would be between 100m to 120m passengers a year“, time will show the final results.

 

Ergun UNUTMAZ, 20/05/2013