TIRANA, March 27 – The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy has once again postponed the deadline to submit offer for potential investors regarding the Vlora Airport concession, amid the COVID-19 crisis. The deadlin 21 April 2020 at 1:00 pm as a new deadline.
This is the second time that the deadline for the Vlora concession is postponed, after the Minsitry changed the inital March 12 deadline to March 30 a few weeks ago. The postponement will also lead to delays in the evaluation processes and the construction of the airport, which was set to begin in May of this year.
The government has decided to guarantee the concessionaire’s revenue for at least 10 years if the amount is lower than 138 million euros. The guaranteed revenue for the first 10 years of operation is expected to total 9.6 million during the fourth year, 10.3 during the fifth year, 11.2 during the sixth, 12.1 during the seventh and so on, reaching a peak of 18.6 million euros during the thirteenth year. In total the guaranteed revenue should be around 140 million euros, according to government officials.
“This project carries high risks because it is an airport built from scratch on a green field, and it is impossible to accurately predict the turnover and air traffic. Also, according to the forecast of the consultant contracted by the Contracting Authority, a low rate of return of 9.23 percent is observed in the base case scenario. In these circumstances, if the decision to go through with the development of this project is approved, then the contracting authority will take measures to guarantee the revenue estimated in the base case scenario, that is the revenue missing between the actual and projected level in the base case scenario during the first 10 years that the airport will be functional,” the official document by the MIE reads.
In case that the projected revenue is exceeded, then the total revenue will be divided 50/50 between the concessionaire and the government.
