New Skopje Airport Open for Business

  


September 2011

by Hans Mohrmann

Another in the line of success stories behind InterVISTAS' global efforts to ensure excellence in airport PPP concessions.

On Sept-6 2011, the Government of Macedonia and its private partner in the PPP airport concession, TAV Airports (Turkey), inaugurated the newly reconstructed "Alexander the Great" Airport in Skopje, the country's capital. The event, in the new passenger terminal building, took place in the presence of Government representatives, the business sector, domestic and foreign media. Many ordinary citizens also joined in the celebrations, having arrived by buses organized by the authorities especially for the occasion.

Leading members of both the Macedonian government and TAV Airports addressed the audience. The symbolic ribbon-cutting act of officially opening the airport for business was performed jointly by both countries' governmental and business sector representatives.

The new passenger terminal covers 40,000 sq.m., operates 23 check-in desks and 6 passenger boarding bridges, and is able to process 4 million passengers annually. It is spread over two levels - the ground floor serves check-in during departures and welcomes arriving passengers after passport control, while the upper floor accommodates customs and security control points during departure. Both levels also house commercial and/or duty free facilities.

TAV Airports will be operating Macedonia's international airports until March 2030.

The airport complex brings many new benefits, including: the new passenger terminal, a brand new cargo terminal with annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes, an extended runway allowing Code-E aircraft operations to overseas destinations, and a brand new rescue and fire-fighting station. The airport reconstruction and modernization works began in March 2010.

InterVISTAS and NACO have been jointly assisting the Government of Macedonia in its national airports privatization project since 2007. We have undertaken a broad range of consultancy services in airport planning and development, PPP transaction advisory, economic and regulatory issues etc. InterVISTAS/NACO's latest role in this project for Macedonia is to conduct the oversight of the implementation and Contract Management of the PPP concession for a duration of 2 years until July 2012.



hans.mohrmann@InterVISTAS.com