The Government of Greece has issued a Letter of Award to the consortium of GMR Airports Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, and TERNA Group for the development, operations and management of a new international airport of Heraklion at Crete, most visited island in Greece, on Friday.
GMR Airports Limited is the designated Airport Operator in the consortium for this project. This follows the consortium being declared provisional contractor in June 2017.
Greece is a major International tourist destination, with 27 million tourists per annum, an official spokesperson informed here.
Traffic growth
The Heraklion airport at Crete is the second largest in Greece and has witnessed a CAGR traffic growth of 10% each year over the past three years. The current airport is facing capacity constraint and hence, the new airport will replace the existing Heraklion airport.
Project scope
The scope of the project involves design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance and exploitation of the New Heraklion Crete New International Airport.
The concession period for the greenfield project will be 35 years including the construction period of five years expected to cost up to 520 million Euro.
The entire project is to be funded through a mix of equity, accruals from existing airport and financial grant being provided by Greece, the spokesperson said.
“It is a matter of great pride for us to work on this prestigious airport. We will aim to deliver an airport of global standards which would provide a fillip to traffic potential of Crete,” said Srinivas Bommidala, business chairman, energy and international airports, GMR Group.
GMR Group’s Airport portfolio has around 159 million passenger capacity in operation and under development, comprising India's busiest Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and Mactan Cebu International Airport in partnership with Megawide in Philippines.
