Airport News
The Brazilian government has sold Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão International Airport for R$19.02bn (£5.14bn), as part of president Dilma Rousseff’s plans to modernise infrastructure and attract more foreign investment in the country.
The airport, which sold for four times the minimum bid offer of R$4.83bn (£1.3bn), was awarded to two private concessionaires: Odebrecht TransPort (OTP), an investor and operator in public transport service concessions and part of the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht; and Changi Airports International (CAI), an investor and manager of airports and subsidiary of Changi Airport Group.
As part of the agreement, the OTP-CAI consortium will run Galeão International for 25 years and invest around R$5bn (£1.4bn) in improvement projects to expand and upgrade the airport. The consortium will work with Brazilian government corporation, Infraero, to deliver the projects.
“Our priority will be the rendering of high-quality services to the passengers and users, thus being able to achieve the best international standards. Additionally, we must focus immediately on the expansion of the Galeão Airport. Sharing the experiences acquired by Infraero, which will also be a member of the future concessionaire to be created, will be instrumental in the accomplishment of our targets,” said Paulo Cesena, president of OTP.
Last year, 17.5 million passengers passed through Galeão. According to the consortium’s investment plan, the airport’s capacity will increase to more than 60 million passengers by the end of the 25-year concession. The first phase of construction will include the building of an additional 26 aerobridges and car parks by April 2016.
The contract for the concessionaire is expected to be signed in March next year and activities scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2014. During the most intense work period, the expanded operations and infrastructure development will create additional employment.
Galeão International Airport is the main airport serving Rio de Janeiro, which will host the football World Cup next year and the 2016 Olympic Games.
