Decision time for Zagreb terminal

Will the French build Zagreb’s dream terminal?
There is just over a month left for an expert commission to decide whether to award Aeroports de Paris a concession to run Zagreb Airport and build a new multi million Euro terminal. The French offer, the only one received after a controversial year-long tender in 2011, has the support of Tomislav Mihotić, the State Secretary for Infrastructure. He believes the offer is good and would benefit Croatia as it would pump millions into the local economy.

While details of the French bid have not been disclosed to the public it is believed that they have offered to build, in the first phase of the project, a terminal with the capacity to handle five million passengers, a major strong point of the bid. During the tender, the government requested for a terminal with a capacity to handle 3.5 passengers to be built in the first stage. The French have outlined their plans to make Zagreb a regional hub and believe strong passenger growth would be seen in the first few years since being granted the concession. As a result, they also believe Croatia Airlines would benefit since the airport would become transit point in South East Europe.

On the other hand there is also staunch opposition to the French offer and there have been calls for the entire tender procedure to be repeated. Recently, GMR Infrastructure, one of the ten tender bidders said, “We evaluated, then we decided not to go ahead. Looking at the project's economics, they were not working out". Some consortiums participating in the tender claimed it was mismanaged and that participants were misguided. During the tender process, bidders found out that the government had already chosen a design for the new terminal, despite not specifying so in the original tender documentation. Furthermore, the cost of the project was also reported to be too high for many of the bidders. This ultimately led the government to delay the final tender deadline three times.

Comments

  1. Watch my words, in 2022 we will land & take off at the same s**t terminal as now, with nothing new in sight.

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    1. desperate houseman13:19

      its pitty, but its true....
      in 2022 Zadar Airport will have some airbridges and Zagreb...the capital of croatia and the representant of star alliance flights, coming via Zagreb to the coast, will stay an old f***g terminal

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  2. Anonymous12:37

    OT:

    It is true that AA will stop operations to Budapest! May they switch over too Belgrade?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:16

      Yes, it's true and definitely not unexpected! Don't you understand that AA terminated these flights because with the demise of MA, they lost their feeder at the BUD end? And what would BEG offer them? JAT is not OneWorld, so wouldn't be able to neither feed AA's flight to New York, nor transport AA passengers beyond BEG ... so, no way that AA will now switch to BEG!

      Delete
  3. Anonymous12:38

    or may they wait until the "new jat" is created? ;)

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  4. Zagreb needs this terminal to be built and asap. I understand many have a problem with the French consortium but I'm sure the main goal is to make money thus will be a benefit for the people of Zagreb and a spring board for Zagreb to become a regional centre if there is a demand for it to be.

    Again I see today Zagreb is confirmed as the city to host another huge musical event. Madonna will perform at Maksimir stadium. The only other city in the region where Madonna will perform is Vienna.
    I think Zagreb has really cemented itself as the 'go to' city in the region for major international concerts. In just past few years Zagreb has seen concerts by Byonce, Metallica, Pearl Jam, U2, Britney Spears, Bon Jovi, Leonard Cohen, PINK FLOYED :), 50 cent and others.
    The point I’m trying to make is that I believe it’s not just that Zagreb is in a good location but also benefits from the excellent publicity Croatia has been getting internationally these past few years and Zagreb airport should make it their complete mission to ensure they benefit to the maximum which without decent infrastructure is basically impossible.

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  5. Anonymous14:16

    @ 2nd last anonymous

    Why couldnt AA codeshare w JAT?

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    1. Anonymous18:10

      sorry, just saw your post ... anyway, in theory, it is of course possible that AA and JAT would sign a code-sharing agreement, but it's highly unlikely considering how close JAT has gotten to SkyTeam over the past few years. And without a strong partner at the other side (i.e. BEG), there is just no way AA would (at least not in its current economic situation) attempt to start a new - and rather risky - long-haul destination ... just my 2 cents

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  6. AA declared filed for bankruptcy and is looking to cut costs. This is not the time where they will be adventurous and start flying to the ex-Yu, not BEG, ZAG, or any other of our airports.

    As far as ZAG, I think the bid should have gone to the Houston group...

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  7. Anonymous00:07

    Ljubljana is the best concert city in ex-yu...
    We have Klape groups every month in Ljubljana - Stožice center
    LOOL

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  8. frequentflyer00:25

    Wow. A vote for the forum stooping to a new low in terms of getting off topic! Who would have thought?? Admin, it is *really* time to make people register to post to stop this garbage and allow serious debate!

    Trying to get back on topic:

    - passengers don't care about the "best looking" whiz-bang terminal, but they want one where all the facilities work, and they feel they get value for money from the fees within their ticket.

    - CAPACITY is the problem at ZAG. The terminal is designed for 1.5m pax, and nearly 2.4m went through the doors in 2011. Aprons can't cope either with the waves of flights, particularly the morning peak (7-9am) which is nothing short of chaos.

    - Growth: ZAG expects 3m pax in the coming years. They realise they don't have anywhere near the right amount of infrastructure in place for the future. Is a 5m terminal too big? Not if down the track they know they will hit that number. Or, build it in phases like KUL: where planned for growth can happen down the track despite a downturn in business.

    - OU has regularly stated its own growth is hampered by a lack of space for its aircraft and inadequate facilities for pax at ZAG. More pax through the doors (irrespective of which airline) is greater money in the coffers of the HR govt, and more jobs at ZLZ.

    The project is long overdue, and the sooner a decision is made the better for all.

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