Avinor
Passenger numbers at Avinor’s airports increased by 2.7% in Q1 2016, driven by strong growth in international traffic.
Norway’s Avinor is to invest in an upgrade of its existing ATM system, and enter the iTEC alliance in collaboration with NATS. This will help Avinor to provide enhanced services and meet requirements for the European Union’s (EU) Single European Sky programme. By entering the iTEC alliance, Avinor becomes part of Europe’s largest ATM system collaboration along with ANSPs in Spain (ENAIRE), Germany (DFS), the UK (NATS) and the Netherlands (LVNL) – alongside systems provider Indra.
Newquay Cornwall Airport
Handled 250,000 passengers last year; 50% growth to 370,000 is forecast in 2016.
Newquay Cornwall Airport has opened the Aerohub Business Park, designed to encourage regional economic growth and build upon growing passenger numbers. The new business park will accommodate over two million sq ft of hangar space, offices and manufacturing. The Aerohub is led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership and Cornwall Council as the owners of the airport and surrounding land.
Milan Linate Airport
Handled 2.1 million passengersin Q1 2016.
Milan Linate has become the 20th airport to fully implement A-CDM, an integrated platform that broadcasts in real time flight status information of all flights to the Network Manager Operations Centre at EUROCONTROL. Milan Linate is the fourth Italian A-CDM airport, joining Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Venice Marco Polo. Naples will be the next, in mid-2017.
Madeira Airport
Achieved 6.3% growth to 2.7 million passengers in 2015.
Madeira Airport has completed the €11 million renovation of its new commercial and operational space. This investment sees a new walkthrough duty free store and a diverse line-up of new stores covering more than 1,800sqm. Operational improvements included strengthening and re-profiling the runway, and increasing its usable area by 1,500sqm, while also providing seven new passenger and hand baggage screening lines to speed up passenger processing by an estimated 83%. ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal claims that it is now possible to process 1,400 people an hour in the terminal, almost double the pre-renovation rate of 720.
Lithuanian Airports
914,000 passengers travelled through Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga airports in Q1 2016 (+17%).
On 2 June, Lithuania’s Parliament approved a draft law that will enable three state-owned airports to be managed by private concessions. The three Lithuanian gateways, Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga, handled 4.2 million passengers and 50,000 flights in 2015.
Sheremetyevo Airport
SVO was Russia’s busiest airport in 2015, handling 31.6 million passengers.
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport and Volga-Dnepr Group have signed an agreement that will see them enhance cargo infrastructure at the airport and develop relationships with other airports. SVO is attracting investment in its cargo terminal infrastructure. The first-stage construction of a new 40,000sqm cargo terminal at SVO started in March and is scheduled for completion in April-May 2017. It will cost around $45 million and will be able to handle up to 380,000 tonnes per year.
Vienna Airport
Registered a 2.3% rise to 4.4 million passengers in Q1 2016, driven by strong growth of easyJet and Eurowings.
Vienna Airport has revealed its plans for future terminal development, including the addition of 10,000sqm of new shopping and restaurant space and the introduction of central security across its currently fragmented terminals. The old building sections – Pier East and Terminal 2 – will be modernised and expanded to encompass a central security area for the B, C and D gates; this project will help increase retail and F&B space in these zones by +50%. A new building will be constructed at the southern side of Terminal 3. The project phase will be gradually introduced until 2023, with a maximum investment of €500 million.
Munich Airport
Handled 12.3 million passengers between January and April 2016 (+2.6%)
Munich Airport officially inaugurated its new €900 million satellite terminal on 26 April, which is Germany’s first midfield terminal. With the new satellite facility, the capacity of T2 has been increased by 11 million to 36 million passengers per year. The building adds another 7,000sqm of retail and F&B to the 16,400sqm in the existing T2.
Sofia Airport
Throughput increased by 13% to almost 1 million in Q1 2016.
In May, Bulgaria launched a tender to operate Sofia Airport for 35 years, a deal expected to bring about €300 million to state coffers. Operators of airports in Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Lyon and Dublin, and the operator of London’s Heathrow, as well as companies from Qatar, Turkey and China, have already expressed interest in the tender. Potential candidates for the concession will face an end-September deadline to submit their offers. Two other major airports in Bulgaria are already under concession, in the Black Sea cities of Varna and Bourgas, managed by Germany’s Fraport.
Albania Airport
Tirana International Airport recorded a 10.3% increase in passenger traffic to 2 million in 2015.
Keen Dynamics (KDL), the joint venture of financial services company China Everbright (CEL) with Friedmann Pacific Asset Management, has signed an agreement to buy Albania’s Airport operator, Tirana International Airport SHPK (TIA). The closure of the deal is subject to approval from the Albanian Government. KDL will take over TIA’s airport concession until 2025, with a two-year extension up to 2027.
