The City of St. Petersburg is tendering a R.40.2bn ($1.2bn) 30-year build and operate contract for the construction of a new passenger terminal and new runways at Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport and three companies have

been announced as potential bidders.

They include German airports company Fraport in a joint venture with the London-based VTB Group, Vienna Airport (Flughafen Wien) and local company Basic Element.

The City says that the ultimate goal is to turn the airport into a major regional hub which can serve destinations in the Baltic and Scandinavia. This latest international tender – which closes this month – follows the suspension of several infrastructure projects earlier this year after investors indicated that they were reining in their money for major construction projects in Russia.

The Pulkovo Airport expansion project includes the construction of a 180,000sq m passenger terminal located in the airfield centre, with all major departure and arrival gates and services for both international and national regular and chartered flights concentrated in this main building.

Aer Rianta International is the duty free concessionaire at Pulkovo.