December 23 (SeeNews) - Belgrade airport operator Aerodrom Nikola Tesla [BEL:AERO] handled a record six million passengers year-to-date on Friday, it said.
"We have achieved 6 million passengers mark, our best result so far, largely as a result of the opening of as many as ten new routes by Air Serbia, new Air France and ASL Airlines flights to Paris, new Wizz Air flights to Lyon and a very successful charter season," Belgrade airport CEO Francois Berisot said in a statement on Friday.
Belgrade airport handled 4.75 million passengers in the first nine months of 2019, an increase of 7.8% on the year. In the third quarter of 2019 alone, the number of passengers at the airport increased 9.3% year-on-year.
In March 2018, France's Vinci Airports signed a 25-year concession contract with Serbia covering the airport’s financing, operation, maintenance, extension and upgrade of Belgrade airport. Under the terms of the deal, Vinci Airports paid 417 million euro ($462 million) to the Serbian government and 84 million euro to the retail shareholders of Aerodrom Nikola Tesla for the concession plus an annual concession fee of between 4.4 million euro and 15.1 million euro.
Belgrade airport serviced 5.641 million passengers last year, up 5.4%, breaking the record set in 2017.
($ = 0.902036 euro)