Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications launched a procedure to grant concession of Sofia Airport.

The concessionaire will be selected through an open procedure. The minimum requirements for the participants are to have experience as an airport operator of at least one international airport with passenger traffic exceeding 6 million passengers a year; have the necessary technical equipment and qualified technical personnel; have experience in the construction of airport infrastructure; as well as give reliable guarantees for securing financing.

The criteria for the complex assessment of the offers and their relative weight are as follows:

• Ammount of the single and the annual concession payment with a relative weight of 55 % and the ratio between the single and the annual payment under this criterion is 90 to 10;

• Business proposal for the operation of Sofia Airport with a relative weight of 25 %;

• Investment programme containing proposed amount for investment for the duration of the concession with a relative weight of 15 %;

• Security measures at Sofia Airport with a relative weight of 5 %.

The concession period is 35 years. The future concessionaire should make a minimal single concession payment amounting to no less than 550 000 000 BGN, VAT excluded.

The participant selected as a concessionaire obliges to make annual concession payments from the first year to the end of the concession period, amounting to a percentage of the net income for the relevant year, set under the offer of the concessionaire, but no less than 7 % of the total amount of the net income from all activities for the current year that are related to the use of the object of concession.

The amount of the annual concession payment can not be less than 9 957 000 BGN, VAT excluded.

The concessionaire will be obliged to realize investments amounting to no less than 306 545 000 BGN, VAT excluded, for the duration of the concession. The investment will include construction of a new passenger Terminal 1 with seven aiprons and 5 entrances-exits for passengers with a capacity of service – 3 000 000 passengers a year, as well as other activities aimed at development of airport infrastructure.

Other obligations of the future concessionaire are to make a Business proposal for the operation of Sofia Airport, which includes also a social programme, as well as undertake all necessary security measures at the airport.

Expected benefits for the state for the entire period of the concession amount to more than 1.2 billion BGN and the preliminary analyses indicate that investments of the future concessionaire will have good returns.

The Concession procedure notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the National Concessions Register and was promulgated on the webpage of the State Gazette.

The notice, the documentation for participation in the open procedure and its annexes are published on the MTITC webpage:

https://www.mtitc.government.bg/page.php?category=755&id=9140