October 19 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's transport ministry said it has extended the deadline for submitting offers in a tender for awarding a concession contract for the operation of Plovdiv Airport to November 26 from October 12.
All other terms of the tender procedure remain unchanged, the ministry said in a notice last week.
This is the third time the ministry has extended the bidding deadline.
The previous tender for awarding a concession agreement to run the airport was cancelled in October 2018, after the first-ranked consortium comprising China's HNA Group and Dutch-registered Plovdiv Airport Invest withdrew its offer. The transport ministry said at the time that the second-ranked offer, coming from a tie-up comprising Bulgaria's Trakia Economic Zone and local transport and logistics company PIMK, was significantly lower and it is in the country's best interest to relaunch the procedure and seek new offers.
The HNA Group - Plovdiv Airport Invest tie-up had offered to invest 79.1 million euro ($93.2 million) in the airport and pay an annual concession fee of 600,000 levs plus 6% of the net income from the operation of the airport.
The Trakia Economic Zone - PIMK consortium had proposed to invest 65.5 million euro and pay each year 120,000 levs plus 6% of the net income generated from the airport's operation.
($ = 0.8489 euro)