Brazil’s Privatization of Twelve Airports Seeks to Obtain R$2.1 Billion

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s government will auction off twelve airports on Friday which receive annually almost twenty million passengers, and hope to obtain a minimum of R$2.01 billion for the terminals. The airports will be auctioned off in blocks located in the Northeast, Southeast and Center-West. This is the first privatization auction of the Bolsonaro Administration.

“We are expecting a very competitive auction, many foreign and Brazilian operators, all of the first line that already operate major airports around the world should participate,” said Secretary of Civil Aviation, Roney Glanzmann, in an interview with government-run news agency Agencia Brasil.

Officials estimate that up to 12 companies, both with national and foreign capital, will participate in the auction.

“We have been talking for more than a year now with these foreign operators and everyone is excited about this federal government grant model. We believe we are going to attract major world airport operators,” said Glanzmann.

This will be the first time that the block model will be tested. Until 2017, airports had been auctioned individually.

Each of the blocks should attract one type of investor, say officials. The Northeast block, the airports target tourist destination and should be the block with the highest number of interested buyers. The block includes the airports of Recife (PE), Maceió (AL), Aracaju (SE), Juazeiro do Norte (CE), João Pessoa and Campina Grande (both in Paraíba).

Officials say these are the airports closest to the European continent which should attract European company bids.

The airports scheduled to be auctioned in the Southeast include Vitoria (ES) and Macaé (RJ), airports serving the oil and gas industry.

In the Center-West airports to be auctioned serve predominantly the agribusiness segment. These airports include Cuiabá, Sinop, Rondonópolis and Alta Floresta, all located in Mato Grosso state.

The contracts are for thirty-year concession terms. The government is also expected to announce on Friday the privatizations of another twenty-two airports in auctions to be held in August 2020. According to the officials the final round of concessions, with twenty-one airports will take place by the first quarter of 2022.