Lula government has 1st auction, from Natal airport – 05/18/2023 – Market

Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) scheduled for this Friday (19), starting at 10 am, the rebidding of São Gonçalo do Amarante airport, the Natal (RN) terminal, the first privatized in the country.

The first concession auction of the Lula government (PT) will take place on B3, the São Paulo Stock Exchange, and the minimum bid was established at R$ 226.9 million. The event should count on the participation of the Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França.

It was the first in Brazil to be awarded to the private sector, in 2011, as part of the first airport auction. According to the aviation agency, the auction will be for the largest initial contribution offered for the expansion, maintenance and operation of the airport for a period of 30 years.

The airport, located in the metropolitan region of Natal, has the capacity to receive 6 million passengers per year, has eight boarding bridges and operates domestic and international flights.

The terminal underwent a friendly return process by Consórcio Inframerica, the airport’s administrator, who announced the order in 2020.

Located 18 kilometers from the port of Natal and about 30 kilometers from the center of the Potiguar capital, the airport is close to roads that connect with other capitals in the Northeast, such as João Pessoa (PB) and Recife (PE).

In February of this year, ANAC approved, in an unprecedented way, the call for bids for São Gonçalo do Amarante. The agency stated that the process is viable and has the potential to help develop national infrastructure.

According to the Ministry of Ports and Airports, “this is a strategic opportunity in the region for investors who want to enter the country or expand their participation in the national air transport market.”

The contract with Inframerica began in 2012, for a period of 28 years, and the terminal was built from scratch, as part of the works planned for the 2014 World Cup. The company is also responsible for managing the Brasília airport.

According to the current concessionaire, the Rio Grande do Norte terminal also stands out as one of the main cargo exporters in the Northeast region and has 210,000 m² of aircraft patio area.

Natal airport ended 2022 with a flow of 2.2 million passengers and 18,179 takeoffs and landings. The movement represents an increase of 24.6% in the movement of people, compared to 2021.

Compared to the movement before the pandemic, the flow of people had a good recovery and has already approached the movement rates of the year.

In 2020, Infrarica announced that it would return the airport’s concession. At the time, the airport operator calculated that it had invested around BRL 700 million in infrastructure works.

One of the justifications presented by the company at the time was in relation to passenger traffic, “mainly impacted by the severe and long economic crisis faced by the country, which occurred precisely in the initial period of the concession and which directly impacted tourism in the region”.

The company also stated that the technical, economic and environmental feasibility studies carried out at the beginning of the concession pointed to an expectation of 4.3 million passengers in 2019. “However, the registered flow was 2.3 million, about half of what was foreseen in the feasibility studies”, he said.

According to the concessionaire, contractual rules that were perfected over the course of other airport auctions also weighed on the decision.

“With the re-bidding and new contractual conditions, the administrator who will take over will have more chances of having a sustainable operation in the long term”, says the company, in a note, this Thursday (18).

After the auction, until the new administrator fully assumes the concession, Infrarica will remain in charge of the air terminal. The transition between the companies is expected to take place in early 2024.

According to the government, there are ten other re-bidding processes in progress, in addition to the Potiguar terminal: seven for highways, one for railways and two more for airports.

About 9 out of 10 passengers use airports controlled by private companies in Brazil, according to Anac data, based on data up to 2022.

Last year, 15 airports were auctioned in the seventh round of airport concessions, grouped into three blocks.

The government’s strategy with the concessions has been to join coveted airports with loss-making terminals, to balance the blocks.