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"Sell airlines. Buy airports"
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Issues
The words of a well-known player in the industry. However, while there has in recent years been a rush to buy airports
and the future is likely to see a rush from indebted governments globally to privatise their airports, not all airports are
worth buying, and certainly for all airports there is a fair price - and no more - to pay. The form of the private sector
involvement in an airport can be particularly important for its future development and contribution to the local economy:
concession, majority sale, minority sale, management contract - these possibilities and more exist in Europe (as documented
in a recent ACI Europe survey) as well everywhere else in the world.
Assessing the fair price to bid needs to start
with robust traffic forecasts, especially of passenger demand. Many airports are served by Low Cost Carriers (LCCs)
so projection of aeronautical revenue needs to go hand-in-hand with passenger forecasts. With the pressures on airline
finances never relenting, airport commercial revenues become ever more important. Costs, both operating and capital,
need to be minimised whether preparing a bid for an airport or managing an airport. Short bid times prevent detailed
masterplanning and capacity assessments so an experienced eye is often a valuable alternative. Privatisation is often
associated with some explicit form of economic regulation, and the development or interpretation of the rules is vital whichever
side of the transaction you are on!
...but the fun really begins once an airport has been acquired. Development
of air services is needed, the airport's pricing policies may need revision, commercial revenues need to be boosted, and
all this in the context of increasing competition between airports.
Services
Privatisation
and commercialisation strategies
Commercial and technical due diligence
Traffic forecasting and development of
business plans
Advice on economic regulation
Aeronautical pricing policies
Air service strategy and development
Experience
Advisor to Belgian Government on privatisation of Brussels International Airport
Advisor to Slovak Government on privatisation of Bratislava and Kosiçe Airports
Lending Banks advisor on acquisition
of Budapest Airport by Hochtief AirPorts consortium
Advisor to Goldman Sachs consortium on bid for BAA plc
Development
of pricing policy for Dublin Airport Authority
Management audit of Abu Dhabi International Airport
Restructuring
assistance to ANA eP (Portuguese Airports and ANS provider) to prepare for privatisation
Air Service Strategy and implementation
for the new Durban Airport
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