Single offer for Zagreb terminal

Will the French build Zagreb’s dream airport?
Despite announcements that the tender to find the concessionaire willing to build and run Zagreb’s new terminal would be terminated, the second phase of the tender process has been completed with only two out of the six original bidders making an offer, one of which has been immediately disqualified. The offers came from the consortium Flughafen Zurich & Starbag as well as Aeroports de Paris from France. However, the Swiss-Austrian consortium did not provide any necessary figures and thus its bid was rejected leaving Aeroports de Paris as the only remaining interested party. The outgoing government official talked up the tender process which has been marred by major problems from the outset. "We have successfully completed this second phase of bidding, and an expert commission will now assess the bid and propose its decision to the government", senior ministry official Tomislav Mihotić said. The commission has just over three months (100 days) to assess the bid. It reserves the right to reject the offer it finds it unfit.

Originally, ten consortiums bid for the Zagreb terminal with six making it into the second round. However, during the tender process, consortiums 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 led the government to delay the final bidding deadline three times. Tender procedures began eight months ago.

Many have waited more than a decade for the new Zagreb terminal to advance from the planning stage and become a reality. Whether the French will be successful in doing so in 2012 remains to be seen. If they are, they will participate in a joint public private partnership with the Croatian government and run the airport for the next thirty years.

Comments

  1. lol :)10:00

    Buahaha, "dream airport" indeed...

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  2. Anonymous11:01

    Very disappointing-only one offer..I think the ongoing economic crisis had the impact too.It is not the perfect time for such huge investments.Besides they shouldnt have disqualified TAV.For the time being it is the only company that comes from a booming market like Turkey.
    And when I think about Zurich Airport I think about the fact that they needed 3 years to refurbish an old terminal there so it is better that they got out.

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  3. JU520 BEGLAX11:37

    unfortunately my ctc at ZRH Airport is on vacation, so can t provide you any first hand information from them.

    last anonymous: it took them 3 years, not to refurbish, but to completely break-down the old one, leaving just the old steel contruction, to reduce the length and to build the most advanced terminal in Europe in terms of passenger handling. It s the only terminal who can handle Schengen and Non Schengen at the same time, has a state of the art observer terrace which costed more than 4 mio CHF where you have binoculars with audio information that you can focus each aircraft standing or passing by, giving you information of flight nbr, destination, aircraft type etc.
    Same time there is a small airport for kids, with aircraft and tower with radio connection.
    ZRH airport is for sure top 10 airports of the world in terms of quality and services. (And in terms of public transportation, we are probably Nr. 1 having two tram lines, about 20 bus lines and train departures each 5 minutes in almost every corner of Switzerland.

    believe me, ZRH airport management knows well how to run an airport

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  4. Quite a few things 'stink' about this tender and its subsequent outcome.
    First of all the 'French' company was established only 6 months ago AND only for the purpose of this tender. The real people behind it are still a mystery. Their offer also sounds to good to be true, and we all know the old adage about thing which are 'too good to be true'?
    In the first place it was odd that between Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster and few other world renown architects IGH's (Jure Radić) project would win the tender for the new terminal. The HDZ government then proceeds to publish (an unclear and amateurishly) written public tender for the concessionaire who was to build and run the new terminal for the next 30 years. Here is the catch: the new concessionaire was to have a decision/choice of an architect and the model of the terminal but the HDZ cronies tried to 'push' IGH's project on them!

    This, among others, is the reason why in the end we only saw ONE concessionaire yesterday!

    Something is terribly amiss in the whole story!

    But even if everything is 'legit' as some may foolishly believe I personally doubt that under French tutelage this airport will become a new Balkan hub; too close to home (Paris) for this to happen!

    What do you guys think?

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  6. If all is legit then why would this French company care about how pax number might be affected in Paris by a better airport in Zagreb (which I doubt it would). I'm sure they would be more concerned about profits and how best to make them. Wouldn't you agree…., that is if all is legit?

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  7. Anonymous12:57

    @ Dear BEGLAX

    I do believe that you have built it pretty well at ZRH but still 3 yaers its too long.Heathrow 5 for instance was built in a year.
    And I do agree that ZRH is still among the europes best apts but a comparison with SIN, DXB, DOH, Kuala Lumpur is exaggerated.
    Besides that I know that ZRH got worse in the last few years.I have pretty negative experience last few times with rude and arrogant staff, especially if you are from Balkans, appaling toilets and having to wait 50min. at passport control at Terminal B (non Schengen)

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  8. JU520 BEGLAX13:42

    last anonymous,

    knowing some swiss I could imagine that this is all true. If you notice such behaviour again, note down the name, flight nbr, gate nbr/time and send an email to Flughafen ZRH complaining about it/same counts for waiting times

    Building in Switzerland takes longer, this might be true. They are very cost sensitive and if you build at night or weekends, there is higher labour costs etc. There is strict laws in terms of noise.

    Public toilets should get cleaned every 2-3 hours, most of them are either quite new or refurbished. But with nowadays society no wonder if they are sometimes left in a unpleasant condition.

    In case you need other help, just let me know. I m daily on this blog. Ciao Ciao

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  9. ExYugoslaviaTraveller14:10

    The first entry in my life to Switzerland was by air. I arrived at the airport (end of December ... not so long ago) ... feeling like wow I'm going to Switzerland ... but my first impression and main remembrance were and are the stinky toilets in Zurich Airport full of shit (I tried 3 toilets with no success).
    Later impression improved ... but my first memories are still dark and live lasting.

    It's a minor problem ... but whenever I'm thinking about Switzerland I remember it at first

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  10. Anonymous22:20

    OT : are all flights from BEG to Sarajevo cancelled from now ? they have been lately

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  11. Anonymous23:02

    To BEGLAX:


    Thank You!!
    I do have many business trips to Switzerland but I have barely met some Swiss, because all of my colleges there are non-Swiss.They say Swiss are boring:-)Where do you live?
    I consider Zurich as one of the most special and unique cities that I have visited.There is nothing famous to see but experiencing its luxurious spirit while drinking coffe in Sprungli at Bahnhofstrasse is always a pure delight

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  12. Anonymous23:36

    this is a good offer from the French company and it is maybe the best offer for ZAG at the current difficult time globally. this is the last chance for ZAG to finally start with the new terminal. You simply cannot expect every 10 potential concesionaires to bid for the concession, so it has to be clear that despite the bad organisation of the tender it is the first such tender for an airport in Croatia. I hope the new government will carefully study and decide to continue with this very important project without the negative influence of the unions and other parties which are standing behind them, especially politics, which are trying to blow up every investmens and blame somebody for corruption.

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  13. Stefan00:42

    @Anonymous asking about SJJ flights. Nearly all flights to and from SJJ have been cancelled for days due to heavy fog. Only today 3 B&H flights were cancelled, OU also cancelled its flights…

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  14. Anonymous21:40

    Not only ZRH is a top airport, Basel is also very nice. Geneva on the other hand obviously has some "french" influences..

    Will they finaly throw out the awfull
    slow ladies at the ZAG coffee corner..?!

    ReplyDelete

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