A rapid take-off for Bratislava's international airport
Three or four years ago Bratislava airport's terminal building was just like a big empty hall. Each day there were only one or two plane loads of passengers echoing through its generous spaces. Today though, the departures and arrivals board seems too small to display all the daily flights. In the first five months of this year, Bratislava airport saw a 66% year on year increase in passenger numbers. It expects to reach 1.5 million travelers by the end of this year and the government now plans to privatise it.
Bratislava airport and another in Kosice, the second largest town in the country, are 100% state owned. The question is for how long as the Slovak government has just revealed its privatization strategy for the country's two biggest airports. Branislav Kvasnica is the General Director of the Transport Ministry's Civil Association:
"The government decided that by the end of 2005 each of these two airports must have a strategic investor who is to buy 66% of shares. The rest is to be divided between the state and the regional and municipal authorities. The latter two should get 10%, so in the end the state keeps only 14%."
Regional authorities in Bratislava and Kosice have been complaining for the last two months that they were unhappy with the original proposal to transfer the shares in 2010 and not next year. Branislav Kvasnica:
"Initially, the plan was that the state would have tight control over the privatization process because the airports are of strategic interest for the economic development of the Slovak economy as a whole. We wanted the best offer to win the tender and that the winning company receives all the support and time it needs to successfully develop the airports. Therefore we thought that we should still keep a bigger stake until 2010 and then give the 10% stakes to the regions and municipalities. This is different now. They will get the shares as early as next year but will not be able to get any money from it in the next five years. So, I don't really see what difference it makes to them."
The head of the Bratislava regional authority, who is a publicly elected person, fought a lot to get the 10% stake next year. We tried to ask him why this change was so important and how much his authority will benefit from it. However, after initially agreeing with an interview, he suddenly changed his mind and stated he would speak about the issue after the privatization process was final.
Analysts say that the airport is an important source of cash for the region largely thanks to the taxes it pays. The booming airport activity caused mainly by the presence of low cost airlines attracted attention from Vienna Airport. Schwechat, as it is known in the region, is located less than 50 km away from Bratislava. Speaker and Member of the Management Board Herbert Kaufmann confirmed that Vienna Airport intends to participate in the privatization of Bratislava airport:
"There would be different forms of cooperation between airports in Vienna and Bratislava. It must be negotiated but the simplest form of negotiation is to become a shareholder of Bratislava airport and to establish a form of cooperation that will be a win-win situation for Bratislava as well as for Vienna."
Some people in Slovakia fear that given the proximity between the two airports, Vienna would drive Bratislava out of business or use it for cargo. But Mr Kaufmann denies such allegations. The Slovak Ministry of Transport says it will weigh the options once all offers are submitted and take Slovakia's own interests into consideration when choosing a buyer. There are currently 4 bidders, including Vienna and Copenhagen airports.
