Belgrade airport: VINCI Airports the winners, challenges ahead

While large, primary airports such as Vienna, Budapest and Prague are thought of as being the major gateways into Eastern and Southeast Europe, Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport has been making its presence felt in the region, initially by way of a big increase in traffic numbers a few years ago.

The Serbian government decided to privatise the airport and VINCI won the bidding contest, taking on the concession in Feb-2019 - having beaten off consortiums such as Flughafen Zürich/Eiffage/Meridiam; GMR Infrastructure/Terna; and Incheon International Airport Corporation/Yatirimlari ve Islatme/ VTB Capital Infrastructure.

The operating concession came into effect this year. Now, as VINCI commits to a very large and costly infrastructure improvement - albeit partially supported by an EBRD loan - VINCI's CEO is talking in terms of BEG being "the future hub" in Southeast Europe; an ambitious statement.

The operator plans to invest more than EUR730 million in development of the airport over the period of the concession, to increase capacity to 15 million passengers per annum, according to VINCI Airports' President Nicolas Notebaert.

In 2015 CAPA identified Belgrade Airport's potential in a report that suggested that the airport was "challenging the hub order in Central and Southeast Europe". The report may have painted a slightly rosier picture than the reality has proved, and VINCI may have a tougher job on its hands than it once envisaged.