Bulgaria Puts Sofia Airport Tender On Hold

Bulgaria has put on hold a tender to operate Sofia airport after a consortium that built a runway at one of the terminals made a complaint against the procedure with the country's competition watchdog.

"The process has been put on hold as we must observe the law," the transport ministry's spokesman said.

He was unable to provide more details about the complaint, submitted by the consortium of Kuwait's Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi (MAK) and United Arab Emirates' ADMAK General Contracting Company.

A spokesman for Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition said the regulator would consider the complaint in the coming days.

Bulgaria has launched a tender to operate Sofia airport for 35 years, in a deal expected to bring in BGN1.2 billion levs (USD$695 million). The deadline for bids was set for October 20.

Under Bulgarian legislation, however, the procedure should now be temporarily "frozen", until the dispute involving MAK/ADMAK has been resolved.

Operators of airports in Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Lyon, Dublin and London Heathrow, as well as firms from Qatar, Turkey and China, have expressed an initial interest in the tender for the country's main airport, the transport ministry said.

The government hopes to grant a concession to operate the airport, which was used by more than four million passengers in 2015, by the end of the year.

The airport is currently operated by the state.