The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €80m to support the public-private partnership (PPP) project to expand Zagreb Airport in Croatia.
The project involves the design and construction of new passenger terminal building, and is the first EIB development under PPP financing in the Western Balkans.
The bank will provide funding for the first phase of expansion, comprising the construction of a 65,000m² passenger terminal building and associated landside and airside infrastructure.
EIB vice-president Dario Scannapieco said: “EIB funds, granted under an innovative PPP financing scheme, will help to extend Zagreb Airport, providing additional capacity to alleviate the existing congestion and better accommodate the expected traffic growth in the future.”
“Zagreb Airport is not only the most important airport in Croatia, but thanks to its location at the crossroads of priority Pan-European Transport Corridors V and X, it represents a gateway between the Western Balkans and the rest of Europe.”
The overall expansion project involves an investment of €243m for the design and construction of the new terminal and €88m for the maintenance of the airport infrastructure over the period of the concession.
The existing passenger terminal will be operational until the opening of the new one.
When the project is completed in 2016, the airport terminal’s annual capacity will increase from the current 1.5 million to 5 million passengers.
MZLZ, which is the project’s concessionaire for 30 years, will borrow the amount from EIB.