ST. LOUIS — All the contestants in the controversial high-stakes derby to lease St. Louis Lambert International Airport are now out in the open, as the city announced Friday that 18 companies and teams of firms have turned in applications.

A city committee, the Airport Advisory Working Group, will now review the submissions and decide which to seek bids from.

One prospective bidder on the list had previously disclosed its interest publicly — STL Aviation Group, a consortium led by California-based Oaktree Capital Management that hired several politically connected lobbyists. The group includes a company that runs airports in France and elsewhere.

But a prominent no-show was Ferrovial Airports, a Spanish company that had hired former Mayor Francis Slay — now an attorney in private practice — to help lobby for it. Ferrovial operates four airports in the United Kingdom, including London’s Heathrow Airport.

Among them is Lambert Gateway Partners, a consortium including the Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri and Blackstone Infrastructure Group, among others.

Another teacher group also declared its interest — the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, which is working with Ontario Airports Investments Limited and Copenhagen Airports International.

Among other applicants are Netherlands-based Royal Schiphol Group, which runs airports in Amsterdam, other Dutch cities and elsewhere, and Luxembourg-based CAAP, which also is involved with various airports.

The 18 entities responded to a “request for qualifications” issued a month ago by the airport working group. The deadline for submissions was 5 p.m. Friday.

Other applicants are AENA Internacional, AMP Capital, Atlantia, daa International, Global Infrastructure Partners, GRID Realty, Manchester Airports Group, Momentum Aviation Partners, Morrison & Co., Odinsa, OMERS Infrastructure and Fraport, Public Sector Pension Investment Board/AviAlliance and Vantage Airport Group/Corsair-Vantage Investment Partners.

Paul Payne, the working group’s chairman, said the panel’s next step will focus on whether potential bidders have the operational and financial capacity to run Lambert.

Payne, who also is the city budget director, has said objectives are improving Lambert, generating revenue to spur “transformational changes and benefit” for St. Louis and aiding economic development in the region.

The privatization study was begun by Slay near the end of his tenure in 2017 and continued by Mayor Lyda Krewson.

Comptroller Darlene Green and other critics have complained that the process has been set up to favor special interests.

Criticism has focused on the involvement of Grow Missouri, a nonprofit funded by political megadonor Rex Sinquefield, which is one of several consulting firms advising the working group.

Sinquefield funded the city’s application to the federal government to be allowed to consider privatization and is paying the consultants, with reimbursement only if a deal is reached.

If a lease deal is eventually worked out, the entire process could be completed by the end of next year. Any deal requires approval by the Board of Aldermen; the city Board of Estimate and Apportionment; Lambert’s airlines; and the federal government.

Green and some aldermen also are pushing for a citywide public vote, but such measures have been stuck in an aldermanic committee. Meanwhile, privatization critics have been gathering signatures to try to put the issue on the ballot via an initiative petition drive.

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