Aena, the Spanish company that acquired the São Paulo-Congonhas Airport and ten other terminals last August for BRL 2.45 billion (nearly USD 474 million), has just signed its concession contract. Aena has committed to invest BRL 5.8 billion in these terminals during the 30-year contract.
Brazilian civil aviation agency Anac has yet to officially approve the contract, nor has it begun the process of transferring management of the terminals to Aena. Anec told The Brazilian Report that the transition could take up to 125 days.
Another pending bureaucratic procedure is the payment of the concession (an amount that a company pays to the federal government to use a public service for financial gain). For Aena, this amount is equal to its acquisition bid: BRL 2.45 billion.
Aena may pay by unique means because, shortly after the auction, the company requested the previous government’s permission to pay at least half of its obligations with repayments of government IOU bonds, known in Brazil as precatórios.
Brazil’s Solicitor General’s Office is currently evaluating this possibility, and should make a decision by July. Until then, the solicitor general recommends that any federal agency or entity base its decision to accept IOU bond repayments on constitutional provisions. Anac did not tell The Brazilian Report whether it would accept this condition.
So far, Aena has already spent BRL 828 million on the deal, including about BRL 800 million to finance a voluntary layoff plan for Infraero, the state-owned company that manages the airports, BRL 25 million for feasibility studies, and BRL 3 million for the costs of the auction itself, paid to B3.
Aena bought three airport blocks comprising a total of 15 terminals, which represent 15.8 percent of the country’s passenger air transport. 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.
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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