A consortium formed by Romanian airport services provider Avant Airports as the developer of the project and the construction company Avtomagistral-Pivden of Ukraine signed the concession contract for a 198ha decommissioned military airfield in Alexeni, 66km east of Bucharest, where they plan to build a EUR 400 million airport, according to Economica.net.

The project developer, Avant Airports, assured that it has attracted “a team of the best civil aviation experts from more than 15 countries” to develop the “world’s first passive airport” and certify it according to BREEAM according to Open4Business quoting Interfax-Ukraine.

The project doesn’t have financing, which could be a significant obstacle as long as the revenues of the company that promises to develop it (EUR 90,000 in 2022) are four times lower than the RON 2 million (EUR 400,000) concession fee to be paid annually for the land under concession.

“[We] have the opportunity to participate in what is probably the largest and most ambitious infrastructure project in Romania. Our victory in the tender is evidence of the trust in the company on the part of Romanian partners. If we manage to attract investment and implement the project, it will help us open the EU market,” said Mykola Tymofeev, CEO of Avtomagistral-Pivden.

The airport will be completed within four years, according to estimates expressed by the representatives of the consortium at the signing of the concession contract on March 18.

The airport is planned to include a 30,000 sqm passenger terminal with an annual capacity of 6.5 million – nearly half of that of Bucharest’s main airport Henri Coanda (14.6 million in 2023) – as well as a 20,000 sqm cargo terminal with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year.

The Romanian partner in the project, Avant Airports, has a rather complex ownership structure, including an inventor (Mircea Tudor), Moldovan resident Valentin Vizant (on the electoral lists of controversial businessman Renato Usatii in 2014), and a former head of Romanian state military company Romarm (Carmen Bahrim).

Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC has been on the market since 2004 and reported EUR 190 million in revenues in 2013. It designs and builds highways, bridges, interchanges, airfield complexes, and hydraulic structures. The company’s owner is Oleksandr Boyko, according to Open4Business.

In Ukraine, the company has participated in the reconstruction of airports in Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Odesa. In Romania, it is completing the reconstruction of the Satu Mare airport runway.

The Alexeni airfield was built in 1954. It stood out for its widest concrete runway in the country - 80m. It hosted for 30 years the first and only helicopter regiment in Romania.

The military air base was abandoned in 2001. For several years before that, it was partially used, only for small aircraft that required about 800m of runway for landing and takeoff.

In 2002, the Alexeni military airfield was decommissioned.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: screenshot from Consiliul Judetean Ialomita video on Facebook)