Concession of 15 airports in Brazil authorized
On Wednesday, the Brazilian Comptroller’s Office authorized the Government to grant to private initiative the operation of 15 airports, including Congonhas, the third busiest in the country for operating regional flights departing from and arriving to Sao Paulo, the most populated city in Brazil.
The authorization granted by the Court of Accounts of the Union (TCU), an oversight body of the Congress, represents the overcoming of the last obstacle in the concession process, for which the Government immediately announced that it plans to organize the respective auction before the presidential elections in October, EFE reported.
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The Ministry of Infrastructure informed that it plans to publish the respective edict for the seventh round of airport concessions this month so that the respective auction can be held on the São Paulo Stock Exchange in the first or second week of August.
“With the endorsement of the Court of Accounts, the schedule stipulated by the Government remains in force. That is to say that we will publish the bidding edict in June and hold the auction in the second half of 2022,” said the Minister of Infrastructure, Marcelo Sampaio.
According to the Ministry, the concession of the 15 airports to private operators for 35 years should generate investments of about R$ 7.3 billion (about US$ 1,258.6 million) in the expansion and modernization of the terminals.
The airports will be auctioned in three blocks, the first of which includes Congonhas airport and those of the cities of Campo Grande, Corumbá, Ponta Pora, Santarém, Marabá, Carajás, Altamira, Uberlandia, Uberaba and Montes Claros.
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This means that the consortium that intends to operate the Sao Paulo airport, which handled 9.4 million passengers last year, will have to take over the management of another ten airports with less movement.
The company that wins the concession for this block will have to commit to investments of R$ 5,889 million (about US$ 1,015.3 million), in addition to paying a minimum of R$ 255 million (about US$ 44 million) for the license.
The second block brings together the airports of Campo de Marte in Sao Paulo and Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro, two small terminals that operate private business jet flights in the country’s two largest cities.
And the third block integrates the airports of two Amazonian state capitals, Belém, capital of the state of Pará, and Macapá, capital of the state of Amapá.
The winner of the concession for the second lot will have to commit to invest R$580 million (about US$100 million) and the winner of the third lot will have to invest R$875 million (about US$150.8 million).
Santos Dumont airport, another important domestic terminal for operating domestic flights from Rio de Janeiro, had also been included in the seventh round of airport concessions but was excluded this year at the request of the municipality after the company that was awarded the concession for Rio’s international airport in 2014 resigned and announced its return.
The intention of the Ministry of Infrastructure is to hold a new auction in 2023 in which the management of Rio’s two airports will be offered jointly.
The concession of the 15 airports will bring to 49 the number of terminals that have been granted by the Government to private initiative in the last ten years, including the international airports of Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Recife and Salvador.
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