January 9 (SeeNews) - French company Vinci Airports, selected as best bidder for a concession to operate Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, said it aims to upgrade the infrastructure of the airport in order to enable more long-haul flights by flag carrier Air Serbia.
Vinci Airports plans to develop its partnerships with over 200 airlines to further increase the traffic and connectivity of the airport in the Serbian capital in line with the strong potential of Serbia's economy, the company said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
In June 2016, Air Serbia launched a regular service between Belgrade and New York, the first direct flight linking Serbia with the U.S. in 24 years. The route is serviced five times a week by a 254-seat Airbus A330 wide-body twin-engine jet airliner.
"Nikola Tesla airport will act as a base of the company in Central and Eastern Europe, a region where Vinci has not been active so far," the CEO of Vinci Airports, Nicolas Notebaert, said in the statement.
Serbia's government said last week it selected Vinci Airports as best bidder in a tender for a 25-year concession contract to operate the international airport in Belgrade. The French company offered to pay 501 million euro ($601 million) for the concession plus an annual concession fee of between 4.5 million euro and 16 million euro. Moreover, Vinci committed to making investments worth 732 million euro during the duration of the concession.
($ = 0.837632 euro)