Spanish airport operator Aena has won a contract to manage 11 airports in Brazil, among them Congonhas-São Paulo, the country’s second largest.
The result of a public tender, the concession cost €468m, but the full cost of the operation, including the sum of the commitments indicated in the concession specifications, amounts to approximately €780m. Planned investments will be around €976m – 73% of these will be carried out during the first phase of the concession, before 2028.
In 2019, the group of 11 airports recorded a total of 26.8 million passengers, 12% of the country’s air traffic in that fiscal year. Congonhas Airport, with 22.8 million passengers per year, is the group’s busiest airport.
The concession contract is scheduled to be signed in February 2023. It covers a period of 30 years, with the option to add a further five. This is the largest international operation carried out to date by Aena. Its Northeast Brazil Airport Group already wholly manages six airports in the northeast region of Brazil – the new contract means that the Spanish group will manage the largest concession airport network in the country.
Maurici Lucena, chairman and CEO of Aena, said: “Despite the hard times we have been through due to COVID-19, we have always prioritised creating value for public and private shareholders and employees, and we are convinced that Aena’s internationalisation is a guarantee for the future. Brazil’s potential is undisputed. Its domestic traffic, for example, has fully recovered.”
Image: Aena
