Works begin at Belgrade Airport – Construction of waiting room in progress, expansion of terminal and inserted runway by 2025

Preparatory works are in progress at the Nikola Tesla Airport, as an introduction to the project of modernization and expansion of the airport, planned for 2020 and beyond. The preparatory works entail the construction and the equipping of a new waiting room of the optimal capacity of around 140 passengers waiting for boarding at the ground floor of Corridor A, eKapija learns.

The waiting room will have two direct exits to the platform and is meant for passengers using the services of airlines whose aircraft do not use jet bridges, the company Belgrade Airport told our portal.

– The works are expected to be completed in the spring of 2020. This new waiting room will serve as a spare capacity for passengers until the expansion of the terminal is completed, so as to ensure an interrupted flow of passengers and their comfort. After that, the waiting room will be used to increase the total capacity of the airport – Belgrade Airport explains.

According to the Detailed Regulation Plan, which eKapija presented recently, the airport in Belgrade should get an inserted runway and an expanded terminal. Those works, we were told, should be completed by 2025.

– The entire project of the modernization, reconstruction and expansion, as part of the concession project, aims to make the passengers' stay and their moving through the airport more comfortable and to substantially improve the level of the services and features, all in line with the company's good practice. The majority of the works will be carried out within the next five years, including, among other things, the expansion of the terminal, the inserted runway and taxiways, additional parking positions for aircraft, a new de-icing platform, new parking spaces for cars and new access roads – the company says.

According to the DRP, features such as hypermarkets, retail parks and railways could be realized in the airport area.

The company notes that the announced DRP pertains to a far wider area (hypermarket, outlet, retail parks, railway, gas pipeline etc.) compared to the master plan of the works and the concession project, which is the hands of Vinci and which covers only the concession location area.

– The concession location area is clearly displayed in the DRP and primarily pertains to the area within the current border of the airport and the land owned by AD Aerodrom Nikola Tesla. In comparison, the area that our company is developing is less than a fourth of the total area covered by the plan – Belgrade Airport points out.

Belgrade Airport has signed a contract with Vinci Terna Construction JV d.o.o. on the majority of the works, especially those that need to be carried out in the first investment cycle.

– That is a joint company of Vinci Construction, which is part of the Vinci Group, and the Greek GEK Terna, with previous experience in projects in Serbia. In line with the needs of the project, they will employ local designers and subcontractors, complying with the quality and capacity requirements of our company policy. A part of the works will be directly offered by Belgrade Airport to engineering design and construction companies in the market – Belgrade Airport says.

Let us remind that Vinci Airport manages the operations of 45 airports worldwide. On March 22, 2018, the company signed an agreement on a 25-year concession of the Nikola Tesla Airport with the Government of Serbia, after which it founded the company Belgrade Airport (previously Vinci Airports Srbija d.o.o.), which runs the Nikola Tesla Airport during the concession period.

As they told our portal, they expect to reach the number of 15 million passengers by the end of the concession period.

S. Petrovic

A.D. Aerodrom Nikola Tesla Beograd

Belgrade airport doo Beograd

VINCI Airports France

VINCI CONCESSIONS - VINCI Construction

Vinci Terna Construction JV doo Beograd-Surčin

Aerodrom Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla Airport

Belgrade Airport

Vinci Airport

Vinci Construction

Vinci Terna Construction JV

GEK Terna

works on the airport

expansion of Nikola Tesla Airport terminal

Nikola Tesla Airport concession

Nikola Tesla Airport inserted runway

construction of waiting room at Nikola Tesla Airport