NEWS FLASH
The Hungarian state and France’s VINCI have purchased the operator of Budapest Airport in a 4.3 billion euro deal. The buyers paid 3.1 billion euros for the airport and assumed a net debt of 1.2 billion euros, according to a government statement. VINCI will hold a 20% stake in the airport operator and be responsible for its management. The development is notable, considering VINCI also operates Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, some 360 kilometres south of Ferenc Liszt International Airport. “VINCI Airports will manage and deploy its model, which aims to improve the customer experience and support traffic growth through appropriate investment. An ambitious action plan will also be rolled out to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. Through this acquisition, VINCI Airports, which has operations in Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, and Serbia, is reinforcing its network in Europe, which now covers 26 platforms handling nearly 154 million passengers in 2023”, the French airport operator said in a statement. The Belgrade Airport concession tender in 2018 was not open to holders of a 20% or larger stake in any airport within a 450-kilometre radius of Belgrade. VINCI holds a 25-year concession of Belgrade Airport, which was recently extended by a year and a half to compensate for the period of reduced traffic and revenue during the coronavirus pandemic.
Terrible news for BEG.I can’t believe that the state failed to enter provisions in its concession agreement that prevent something like this to happen. Somebody should be seriously liable for this mess.
ReplyDeleteEven if there was, the governments of Serbia and Hungary are so close, they wouldn't care.
DeleteWhy would it be terrible news for BEG? BEG is the home of a hub-and-spoke legacy carrier, BUD is a P2P airport with a significant low-cost presence. Two very different business models with very little overlap. Long gone are the days where Serbian residents would go to BUD en masse to catch flights to the rest of Europe.
DeleteNo, its a great news for BEG in fact that its operator is now running the 2-3 times bigger airport in its vicinity. You’re a real expert for economy.
DeleteI mean it's not like they own the airport with 20%, the state will be the main shareholder at BUD.
DeleteHold your horses a bit. Anyway, BUD will be always ahead of BEG.
They will manage the airport, despite 20%.
DeleteVinci will “manage” the airport, its not solely about the ownership. That’s a huge conflict of interests to manage two airports close to each other and to be able to know what each will do and to be able to fix things to your own alike and not in the best interests of the airport’s itself.
DeleteAh yes, an airport around 4 hours away by car (excluding immigration) will suddenly become a threat to BEG just cause the operator changed.
DeleteVINCI is a good operator. Why would they subvert one of their main investments in the region
We have an example of LIS and OPO managed by Vinci and of both them doing very well, maybe it doesn't mean that BEG and BUD will knock down each other.
DeleteOf course they won't. They don't even fight for the same passengers in 99% of cases. But some anons make it their mission to spread FUD on this blog and even go as far as to call me out on my "expertise in economy" haha
DeleteBUD should be airport that BEG should try to compete. I really don’t know how’s possible they have that numbers of pax, since no significant diaspora, no significant tourism, no significant economy and no significant transfer pax. I mean, they have all of that but nothing so special
DeleteNo significant tourism? Bidapest is one of the most visited cities in Europe. Not to mention it has a huge Asian population. Just check how many flights and airlines they have to China.
DeleteBUD was nationalized, just wait for Fidesz to start putting their loyalty party members in key positions. This is really bad news for BUD
DeleteNow imagine Vinci taking over Nis airport. That would be great news for Vinci and Serbia, not so much for SOF, PRN and SKP.
DeleteThis could go either way.
DeleteAnon @16:37 is right. It is hard to explain how BUD has twice the number of passengers and ten times the number of cargo, despite the tourism. BEG has a transfer airline which BUD doesn't have which should compensate for that. So either BEG is severely mismanaged, or BUD was operating at a serious loss. 1.3 billion in debt is huge.
Belgrade also has a big Asian population and free visa with China, yet that's not nearly utilized to its full extent.
One more thing. Vinci has managed to attract literally ZERO carriers to BEG.
Delete^ Really? Hainan Airlines, KLM, British Airways, Air France, Jazeera Airways, Luxair, Anadolujet, Air Baltic. Some have left, but the airport did entice them to start flights.
Delete@18.32
DeleteI guess you missed the point that Budapest is among the most visited cities in Europe, that the standard of living in Hungary is incomparable to Serbia, that Hungary is an EU member, which generates traffic, particularly business traffic. That Budapest is considered a major business hub for South East Europe by Far East and Southeast Asian companies. Many major European companies have their offices in Budapest too. I do recommend you travel there. It will be enough to catch the airport bus to the city centre and then catch A1 bus line from Belgrade Airport to realize why it can't be compared to Belgrade in any way. And I say that as someone living in Belgrade.
I can see Budapest flourishing.
ReplyDeleteBEG is 360 kilometres south of BUD? I hadn't realised it was this far.
ReplyDeleteThat is the road distance, not air distance.
DeleteTo me that is very close, not far away as anon@13:41 wrote.
Delete5-6 hours by car is not close. Not to mention possible (or if we're being real highly likely) delays at the border.
DeleteIn literally one year this will be reduced to 2.5 hrs by train
DeleteI'm shocked that Budapest Airport had 1.3 BILLION EUROS of debt.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this is Ex-Yu news, but I wouldn't mind this forum expanding into reporting on countries with deep Ex-Yu relations as well
ReplyDeleteI think it is relevant considering the proximity of BUD and BEG and that they are now managed by the same company.
DeleteThe Ex-Yu region is not really a region. Pula, Rijeka and Ljubljana have FAR more in common with Trieste and Venice Marco Polo / Treviso than Pristina, Skopje and Ohrid. Tirana should also be part of the "region" as should Klagenfurt, Graz, Timisoara etc.
Delete@Anon 14:32 Believe it or not, Skopje and Ohrid have much more in common with Ljubljana than with Pristina. I don’t understand the point of the statement.
DeleteHow so, explain.
DeleteIf I had to guess, because both are Christian and South Slavic
DeleteAlthough culturally, a Slovenian will always be closer to Tyrol and Friulia than the southern parts of Ex-Yu
This is what happens when you base your growth on LCC. You end up nationalized with billions in debt. I can see the airport hiking fees now.
ReplyDelete