SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 16 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria will relaunch a tender for awarding a 35-year concession contract for the operation of Sofia International Airport by September, transport minister Ivaylo Moskovski said.
“One of the political commitments we took was to develop port and airport infrastructure through concessions,” Moskovski said during the annual Strategic Infrastructure and Investments conference held in Sofia on Thursday.
In June 2016, the transport ministry launched a tender for a Sofia Airport concession contract, seeking at least 550 million levs ($314.1 million/281.4 million euro) as a one-off upfront concession payment.
The tender was subsequently cancelled by Bulgaria's caretaker government in April as it said the concession will lead to an increase in airport charges and a decline of passenger traffic.
The deadline for submitting bids had been extended four times before the caretaker government cancelled the tender.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)