Spanish company Aena to take over Brazil’s second-busiest airport in October

Aena, the Spanish company that acquired Brazil’s second-busiest airport, São Paulo-Congonhas, and ten other terminals last August for BRL 2.45 billion (nearly USD 499 million), already has a due date to take over its new operations in the country. 

It will start managing Congonhas on October 17 and, by the end of November, will be operating all 11 terminals. 

The company signed the contract in March but took some time to complete the transaction. Aena hoped to pay at least half of the concession fee (an amount due to the federal government for the use of public services for financial gain), equal to its acquisition bid of BRL 2.45 billion, with repayments of government IOU bonds, known in Brazil as precatórios. In the end, the company paid the concession fee in cash. 

Aena has committed to invest BRL 5.8 billion in these terminals during the 30-year contract.

The auction held last August was the most anticipated by the market since the launch of Jair Bolsonaro’s national privatization program in February 2021. The Spanish company, which already manages six airports in the country’s Northeast, was the only one to present a proposal for three airport blocks that account for 15.8 percent of Brazil’s passenger air transport. 

Unlike other terminals, Congonhas Airport has guaranteed traffic and substantial commercial potential. In 2019, before the pandemic, 22 million passengers passed through Congonhas, making it the second-busiest airport in the country. The concession’s viability study promises an average of 30 million passengers annually.

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