AERTEC Solutions is developing a consulting project for the Colombian government on the tendering for the concession of five national airports.
AERTEC Solutions, the engineering and consulting multinational specialising in the airport and aerospace industries, took part in the 1st “Architecture-City” Networking Meeting held in Bogotá, Colombia, which coincided with the delivery of the consulting project on the tendering for the enlargement and management of five Colombian airports. More specifically, the company delivered to the Colombian National Infrastructures Agency (ANI) a consulting project which deals with the technical, financial and legal feasibility study to award a concession on the airport infrastructures in the cities of Barranquilla, Armenia, Neiva, Popayán and Cartago.
It is a project that involves an investment amounting to more than $200 million by the company awarded with the five airports’ management, which will have to take charge of adapting, improving and enlarging the airport facilities to provide a response to the expected increase in air and cargo traffic forecast for the next 20 years.
AERTEC Solutions’ work has focused on determining the economic disbursement of the concession to enlarge and operate the airports, while meeting service levels and quality standards for passengers and airlines. In order to do so, the consulting firm has done some intensive fieldwork during the last few months, which has meant it has had to transfer a team of professionals to audit the five airports, analyse their characteristics and determine the necessary improvements and adaptations to adjust them to their expected growth.
Among other matters, the company conducted an analysis to determine the airport facilities’ current capacity and traffic forecasts for the next two decades. It also drew up a detailed plan which sets out the measures and actions needed in order to enlarge and improve the airport infrastructures.
“It is estimated that passenger traffic at these five airports will increase by 3.7 million passengers over the next 20 years as a result of the growth air transport is undergoing in the South American country”, pointed out Carlos Berenguer, Airports Area Manager at AERTEC Solutions. More specifically, passenger demand at Barranquilla airport, located in the north of the country, is expected to rise from today’s 2 million users to 4.7 million users, while joint passenger traffic at the airports of Armenia, Neiva and Popayán will rise from 750,000 passengers to 1.75 million passengers.
The specifications documents to initiate the airports’ tendering process are expected to be published in the next few weeks. AERTEC Solutions will provide support to the airport concessionaire, the Colombian National Infrastructures Agency, in this process throughout 2014.
An international point of reference in airport facilities
The delivery of this project developed by AERTEC Solutions in Colombia coincided with the participation of Carlos Berenguer, the company’s Airports Area Manager, in the 1st “Architecture-City” Meeting held at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. The meeting was organised by the university’s Department of Architecture, the Spanish Embassy’s Economic and Commercial Office and ICEX España Exportactión e Inversiones.
Carlos Berenguer took part in the round table discussion entitled “Growth Associated to Infrastructures: Public-Private Partnership Model” as part of the Infrastructures Panel, where he addressed the “Structuring of Airport Concessions”.
AERTEC Solutions took part in this forum thanks to its extensive international record in the area of airport consulting and engineering services, with experience at more than 70 airports around the world and projects in 19 countries. As a result of this professional work carried out during 17 years, it has extensive expertise on all aspects connected with interactions between airports and urban areas, as well as of the main parameters involved in the sustainability and integration of this kind of infrastructures.
Latin America, a growing market
AERTEC Solutions has, with the development of this project, consolidated its business portfolio’s international weight, which accounts for 75% of total turnover in its airports area, and strengthened its activities in this market around the world, where it has become a point of reference for engineering and consulting services. The project for these five Colombian airports is the first work AERTEC Solutions has done in the country and reinforces its growth plans by breaking into Latin America, a region of strategic importance for growth.
As Carlos Berenguer, the company’s Aviation Director, highlighted “the forecasts on the rise in air traffic and the significant investments expected in Colombia’s airport industry and in other countries in the continent over the next few years are opening up interesting business opportunities for companies in this area”. Even more so in the case of AERTEC Solutions, a company whose main value resides in its specialisation in the airport sector and which already has a services portfolio covering the entire life cycle of an airport, ranging from the facilities’ conception, design, planning and development to providing airport operations support. “All these services are essential to attain the project’s main goal: obtaining an infrastructure that meets the client’s functionality, cost, deadline and quality requirements”, commented Berenguer.
AERTEC Solutions aims to continue expanding its international presence in Europe and North Africa, areas where it is currently carrying out most of its projects, but also in other areas of strategic interest like Latin America. As a matter of fact, the company has already previously done other work in countries like Panama, where it developed the expansion plan for Tocumen International Airport, and Brazil, with investor consulting work geared at developing an institutional strategy on the country’s airport market.
AERTEC Solutions is a multinational company that has carried out projects in 19 countries across five continents and has references in more than 70 international airports, as well as branch offices in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Internationalisation and technological innovation are, along with its specialisation in aerospace and airports, the hallmarks of this company, which has a workforce comprised of over 370 aeronautics professionals and experts.
