Tiago Pereira Sousa, director of ANAC, the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency, offers an update on the upcoming Brazilian airport PPPs that are part of the seventh round of airport privatizations in the country.

Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) has revealed some important information about the sell-off of the current slew of airports that are available in three batches. The details include the approximate program timetable in the coming months, which potential bidders have been awaiting.

In an interview conducted by Jacques Follain, Chair of the airport chapter of the Geneva-based World Association of PPP Units & Professionals (WAPPP), the director of ANAC, Tiago Pereira Sousa, provided the updates. For almost 20 years, Follain was directeur général at Aéroports de Paris Management.

Among the key points Pereira Sousa outlined were the following:

• three tranches of airports with concessions covering 30 years are available
• two of these include the “crown jewels” of São Paulo’s Congonhas and Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont airports, located in the downtown areas of Brazil’s two most important cities
• demand is high for these two gateways even though they have size/growth limitations
• the North cluster has less short-term appeal, but long-term growth opportunities
• in late December 2021 feasibility studies, auction notices and concession agreements were approved and submitted for court approval
• the approval time is expected to take three months
• official documents should therefore be published by March 2022 when the bid process is launched
• the auction should take place in June/July
• the privatization model has been fine-tuned since the early rounds and has stayed almost the same since the fifth round
• some allowances have been made relating to the tranches that include Congonhas and Santos Dumont airports because of their capacity constraints
• Congonhas has 33 movements per hour currently and ANAC thinks this can reach 44 depending on certain factors
• Brazilian aviation has huge potential because the country is so big and travel demand is high
• air competition with other types of transportation is low thanks to the large distances involved in many cases.

On Covid-19, ANAC said it was about to start new rounds of negotiations with both airlines and airports regarding fee payments and waivers. ANAC has monitored, and continues to monitor, the different waves of the pandemic, adopting measures in line with these different stages including the latest Omicron wave.

To listen to, the full interview please go to the Open Mic section at the bottom of the AirportIR homepage or click here.