The National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) in Colombia has presented the status of the private initiative project to concession a package of 5 airports in the southwest region of Colombia. A project is a single concession for the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón de Palmira airports and Gerardo Tobar López de Buenaventura, along with Benito Salas de Neiva, Perales de Ibagué and El Eden of Armenia. The purpose of this project is to manage, adapt, build, expand, operate and maintain the airport infrastructure that serves these cities.

The project is currently under evaluation of the feasibility stage by the National Government through ANI. The initiative covers four departments, five cities, includes a concession period of 30 years, which includes a year of pre-construction, six years of construction and 23 years of operation and maintenance.

This private initiative was presented by the partnership of the firms AENA Desarrollo Internacional SME, SA, and CFC Energy Holding SAS. It is expected that the Entity can decide on the viability of the project by the last quarter of this year, to subsequently start the hiring and execution phase in 2020. It is important to highlight that in the selection process any company interested in executing the project may participate, as regulated by the Public-Private Partnerships Law.

The details on the airports included in the project:

• Alfonso Bonilla Aragón de Palmira Airport - the works are focused on the development of new taxiways and 82,500m2 of expansion in the commercial platform, with a projected area of ​​145,500 m2, new aircraft positions, including remote positions, the development of a new control tower 42.5 meters high, a parking lot in height of 7,000 m2 per floor, 19 new boarding bridges, new national dike of 15,800 m2, new low-cost dam of 7300m2, among other works. A new dike would be built in the terminal for the attention of national flights, new areas would be enabled for baggage claim, new boarding gates and the adequacy of a security system that includes the installation of a new fence and improvements in the system perimeter detection, among others. The new infrastructure would allow the airport to grow in capacity, which would go from being able to serve 8.5 million passengers to 16.2 million passengers at the end of the concession period.
• Gerardo Tobar López de Buenaventura Airport - the interventions at this airport will include the construction of a new 1,720 linear meters runway (currently the runway is 1,200 linear meters), the adaptation of safety zones, the construction of new taxiways and the renovation of the platform. Additional buildings and infrastructures were also included such as a new control tower, a new fire station and a new terminal building, construction of a turn platform, leveling of runway strips, in addition to the construction of an access road to the parking lot. The new infrastructure would leave it with a capacity to serve about 390,000 passengers a year. Currently, its capacity is 29,500 passengers.
• Benito Salas de Neiva Airport - the main works would be the adaptation of the runway and taxiways, the modernization and expansion of the terminal, the remodeling of the passenger terminal, the installation of new security control, the adaptation of a new access road and the remodeling of 230 parking. The airport's capacity would go from being able to serve 358,000 passengers per year to receive up to 715,000 passengers at the time of the concession.
• Perales de Ibagué National Airport - the works would focus on improving safety, adapting the infrastructure in order to meet the certification requirements required by ICAO, a reconfiguration of the commercial platform and investments to improve lighting is proposed. Being part of the project would potentiate the current capacity of the airport which reaches 385 thousand passengers per year.
• Armenia Eden Airport -  has been reviewed and projected in a way that responds to the conditions and needs of the region that allows it to increase the standards of service quality, safety, the opening of new routes and the arrival of new airlines National and international. The air terminal will allow the region to have a capacity to mobilize up to 1.5 million passengers annually.