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The National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) has launched the tender process for the concession of Porto Alegre, Salvador, Florianópolis  and Fortaleza airports. 

The initial offer in the auction should be at least BLR31 million (US$33 million) for the airport of Porto Alegre, BLR310 million (US$330 million) for Salvador, BLR53 million (US$56 million) for Florianópolis and BLR360 million (US$383 million) for Fortaleza.

Regarding the concession terms, Porto Alegre will be granted for 25 years (renewable for another five years) and the remaining will be for 30 years (renewable for another five years). The total investment for the four airports is estimated at BLR6.6 billion (US$7.1 billion).

In this tender process, it will be possible for the same economic group to win more than one airport concession if the projects are not located in the same geographic region. 

Among the main investments to be made by the future operators are the expansion of passenger terminals (except Hercílio Luz, which will have a new terminal), as well as the rehabilitation and construction of new aircraft yards and runways. There are also plans to increase the number of boarding bridges and increase the number of parking lots. Currently, the four terminals account for 11.6% of passengers, 12.6% of cargoes and 8.6% of Brazilian air traffic aircraft.

This round of airports auction is part of the Investment Partnerships Program (PPI), called Project Growth, which involves 34 infrastructure projects to be carried out under PPP scheme in Brazil.

As we reported in mid June, (ANAC) changed the tender model to attract investors to airport concessions. Under the revious model, the selected consortium had to pay 25% of the Fixed Contribution to the National Civil Aviation Fund (FNAC) at the signing of contracts. The rest, 75%, has to be paid in annual contributions. Furthermore, the concessionaire had to contribute to FNAC with 5% of its annual revenue.