87 Mio EUR Investment In Brasov Airport Construction To Be Financed By London-Based Banks

A consortium of London-based banks has agreed to disburse approximately 87 million EUR for the construction of the Brasov Airport, according to Brasov County Council Chairman Aristotel Cancescu. Roughly two weeks ago, Cancescu met with Ronald Weissberger, the CEO of the Canadian-based Interlcan, who gave him the news. According to Cancescu, the Brasov County Council still needs to secure 14 million EUR, which is the local component of the project co-financing.

"The news that the London-based bank consortium has approved the financing for the Brasov Airport is very good for us, especially considering the current crisis. In the meantime, we have started the procedures for contracting a 14 million EUR loan for our part of the co-financing. However, only one bank, BCR, has shown interest in this respect. We are now making efforts to finalize the procedure as soon as possible," Aristotel Cancescu told BURSA.

According to him, the loan approved by the London-based bank consortium will be made available in September. At such time, the Brasov authorities will be able to organize a tender to award the execution contract. "The CEO of Intelcan told me that he wanted the investment to be finalized in 18 months from the start of the works," Cancescu added.

The Brasov Airport will be much larger than the airports in Constanta and Timisoara and will be built by the Canadian-based Intelcan. The airport will measure a total of 270 hectares, including 10,000 square metres for the terminal and 2,600 metres for the runway. The traffic capacity will be limited to 400 passengers per hour, 2 million passengers per year and 6,000 tonnes of cargo per hour. The total investment exceeds 100 million EUR.

• Airlines announce their interest

Intelcan has not yet approached any airlines, considering that construction works have not started. However, several airlines have learned the news from the media and approached the developer. Several contracts have been signed already, while others are being negotiated. The list includes Carpatair, MyAir, Acvila Austrian Airlines Lufthansa, ELAL, WizzAir, Blue Jet, SpanAir and KLM.

In fact Weissberger has also been contacted by airlines from Germany, Austria and even China, who are interested in the capacity of the cargo terminal and its commissioning date. "I was surprised by that, but after all it proves that the geographical location of Brasov is suitable for such investment," Ronald Weissberger added.

The future Brasov Airport will offer flights to various international destinations including Budapest, Munich, Istanbul and Tel Aviv, as well as to domestic destinations such as Timisoara and Oradea. "Any airport within a 1,500 kilometre radius can be a destination for flights taking off from Brasov," Weissberger added.

Intelcan has substantial experience in airport construction, after having delivered Terminals 1 and 3 of the Havana Airport, three airports in Bulgaria and three military airports in Romania (Fetesti, Campia Turzii and Boboc).