April 5 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's caretaker government cancelled a tender for awarding a 35-year concession contract for the operation of Sofia International Airport, the government press office said on Wednesday.
"The government terminated the concession procedure for Sofia Airport due to the existence of an objective circumstance which was unforeseen at the time of the adoption of the decision to launch the procedure," the government press office said.
In March, transport minister Hristo Aleksiev proposed to cancel the concession tender as the preset conditions would lead to an increase in airport charges and to a decline of passenger traffic.
In June, the transport ministry launched a tender for a Sofia Airport concession contract, seeking at least 550 million levs ($313.6 million/281.4 million euro) as a one-off upfront concession payment.
The deadline for submitting bids in the tender was extended four times. The latest deadline had to expire on May 31.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, Serbia's government has invited bids for a 25-year concession contract to operate Belgrade airport.
A total of 27 companies have submitted declarations of interest in the pre-qualification stage of the tender and 25 of them have proceeded to the next stage and should prepare non-binding offers. The list of candidates includes companies from Germany, France, China, Turkey, Switzerland, India, South Korea and Greece, itSerbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said in March. A month earlier a Serbian government aide said the concession contract has drawn the intetrest of Spain's Ferrovial, Germany's Hochtief and Germany's Fraport, France's Aeroports de Paris and Dutch-based Schiphol.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)