SLOVAKIA. Austrian Airlines said on Thursday it planned to form a consortium to take part in the forthcoming privatization of Bratislava airport, which is expected to be launched later this year or early in 2005.
The firm’s chief commercial officer Josef Burger said the group will also start operating new daily services from Bratislava later this year to get a firmer foothold in its second largest market in the region and create a base for the purchase of the airport.
“We want to participate on development of air transportation in Slovakia, also by entering the Bratislava airport privatisation,” Burger told a news conference.
Burger declined to elaborate on possible partners for the privatization, saying the consortium should cover all the aspects of airport activities from technical to commercial.
Austrian Airlines executive vice-president Fritz Otti, who is in charge of the project, said the plan should be ready by the end of the first quarter.
Slovakia’s transportation ministry said Bratislava airport will be transformed into a joint stock company with the state as a majority shareholder before it is offered for sale.
“It is expected that the state’s stake will be offered to investors,” Transportation Ministry spokesman Tomas Sarluska said. He added it has yet to be decided how large a stake the state will obtain.
Sarluska did not give a timetable for the sale, but said a tender for the adviser will be launched by the end of the year.
Austrian Airlines has been operating flights from Slovakia’s eastern town of Kosice since 1996. The Ministry plans to sell Kosice airport, which served almost 162,000 passengers in 2002, in a separate tender.
