By F. Zois
European and global institutional lenders, which provided financing of up to one billion euros in long-term credit used by a Fraport-led consortium to fund a tender for a 40-year concession of 14 regional airports around Greece, are reportedly fully satisfied from developments so far, namely, a spike in passenger traffic and a stabilization of the Greek economy.
Five out of the six lenders include the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Restructuring and Development, the International Finance Corp., a subsidiary of the World Bank, and the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank (BST&DB)
In terms of the former, passenger traffic at the 14 airports operated by Fraport Greece showed a significant increase in passenger traffic for 2017, reaching 10.9 percent, or 4.36 million in absolute terms. Santorini, Kos and Cephallonia, in fact, posted double-digit annual passenger hikes, year-to-year.
The trend continued in the first half of 2018, where passenger traffic at the 14 regional airports exceeded 10.62 million, up by 11 from the corresponding period of 2017.
In a related development, a construction license for a major 90-million-euro renovation of Thessaloniki’s Macedonia Airport was issued last week.
