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Paris is the latest city where the cancellation, or postponement, or review, of a major airport construction project has been announced.
In this case it is not of the operator’s own volition – Groupe ADP has been told to do it by the French government, for environmental reasons.
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, and long-standing traffic projections go out the window, operators have to accept that governments are increasingly likely to use the pandemic as a catalyst, if not an excuse, towards ensuring that what future infrastructure there is will be as green as the grass in the Bois de Boulogne.
PRESS RELEASE February 11th, 2021 Aéroports de Paris SA Groupe ADP engages in a transformation project for the Paris-Charles de Gaulle platform to promote ecological transition In an announcement made on February 11th, 2021, the Government requests Groupe ADP to present a new development project for Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport after the termination of the Terminal 4 project. Groupe ADP takes note of this request which is one of the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis. Developments contributing to the energy transition of the airport, and of the air sector as a whole, must be thoroughly reviewed considering the increasing commitments on green aircrafts, confirmed in the Government's aeronautics support plan for a green and competitive industry, on June 9th, 2020. The crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and its upheavals have lastingly impacted the traffic growth perspectives, thus questioning the schedule of passengers capacity expansion need at Paris-Charles de Gaulle
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2020 was a year in which the development of many (although not all) airports came to a sudden stop, with capex being replaced in the pecking order by opex in most cases – and in many, simply by survival measures.
Along with that everlasting hiatus came a cull of airport investment and privatisation activities, again with a few notable exceptions, mainly in countries where multiple concession procedures were already well advanced.
Over two parts this report details the few deals which were done in 2020, some that were abandoned or suspended, and those airports which have emerged – or may emerge – as future investment opportunities, assuming that the much-desired ‘post COVID recovery period’ actually takes place this year.
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Any report concerning the construction of a new airport is welcome news these days and in the case of Vietnam’s Long Thanh Airport near Ho Chi Minh City it is a big one. Potentially able to host up to 100 million passengers annually when it is completed, the ground has been broken after six years of vacillation on a facility which will cost USD14 billion and which has not (yet) attracted the hoped-for private sector contribution.
At the same time the existing Tan Son Nhat airport will be expanded as much as it can be. This could enable 150 million or more passengers each year to use these airports, which is high flying in the time of a pandemic but apart from support from IATA, which envisages Vietnam becoming one of the World’s leading countries for air transport, Vietnam has some advantages right now.