Foreign investors clear decks for new airport

Foreign companies have begun to take note of Istanbul's third airport project as the Schiphol Group, which operates Amsterdam Airport, expresses its interest, daily Milliyet reported today. A tender for a third airport in Istanbul with an estimated annual passenger capacity of 150 million will be held May. 3, Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim announced on Jan. 23 as he explained the project in a press conference. As details emerged, the curiosity of local and foreign companies rapidly increased, with Dutch airport operator Schipol Group as the frontrunner among the foreign names. TAV Airports, who operate Istanbul Ataturk airport, partnering with Aeroports de Paris (ADP) and Limak, operator of the second Istanbul airport, Sabiha Gökçen, are among the companies that have expressed interest in operation rights to the new airport. AIC Group, which owns Turkish airline company Atlasjet, has also been clearing the decks to bid for the project with a consortium including Italian design company One Works and investment firm TRKMW.  "The duration of the operation lease will be 25 years and companies will bid over the amount they will pay for the lease for 25-year operation," Yildirim had announced. The project will be conducted using a Build-Operate-Transfer arrangement with the cooperation of the private and public sector. The state will guarantee the amount of passengers and tariff levels for a certain amount of time. The announcement for the new airport's tender was published in national newspapers today. The tender's price specifications are set at 100,000 Turkish liras and the amount of the bid bond will be 40 million euro, according to the announcement.