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The Government of the Republic of Serbia and AD Aerodrom Nikola Tesla Beograd (ANT) have announced that five bidders will proceed the next round of bidding for a 25-year concession to operate Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport.

The subject matter of the concession is the financing, development through the construction and reconstruction, maintenance and management of the infrastructure of ANT and the performance of the activity of airport operator.

The companies shortlisted are:

• France's Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments, Zurich Airport AG and France's Eiffage;
• India's GMR Infrastructure Limited and Greece's Terna;
• France's Vinci Airports;
• South Korea's Incheon International Airport Corp., Turkey's Ictas Concession and Russia's VTB Capital Infrastructure; and
• China's Hainan Air Travel Service, HNA and China National Aero Technology.

Russia's Navaport Invest also had submitted a proposal but it has not fulfilled the conditions for participation in Phase II of the procedure.

The successful bid is expected to raise about €400 million (US$421.3 million), plus an annual fee of €11 million (US$11.6 million).

The tender process was launched last February. The government extended several times an initial March deadline to give bidders more time to complete their offers. As we reported, 27 consortia and firms offered expressed interest in the project

The airport is situated 17 km west of downtown Belgrade near the town of Surčin. Previously known as Belgrade Airport or Surčin Airport, it was renamed in 2006 in honor of scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla. The airport is the busiest in Serbia with 4.92 million passengers using it in 2016.

The airport has two terminals with a combined area of 33000sqm, with Terminal 2 being larger of the two, adjacent to one another terminals are connected through a hallway. T1 has restaurants and shops. The airport has 27 gates (of which 16 are equipped with jetways).

Future expansion of current terminals should see additional 17000sqm to be added, with terminal 2 getting additional 4-passenger boarding bridges. Capacity of the entire airport should all the planned expansion be implemented would double to around 10 million passengers per year.