Bids Submitted for Colombia's Biggest Airport

Five foreign and Colombian-led consortiums presented bids Friday for a 20-year concession to run Bogota's international airport, the country's biggest.

The winner, which the government will choose by September, must commit to investing about $650 million to modernize Bogota's El Dorado airport, the country's airport authority Aerocivil said in a statement.

Nine companies had bought bidding instructions but only five submitted bids.

German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG and Swiss-based operator Flughafen Zuerich AG were among the investors in the consortiums submitting bids. Corporacion America SA, which is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and operates several airports in that country, also submitted a bid together with local investors.

Colombia will choose the bidder that offers to transfer the largest share of revenue back to the government, said Martin Gonzalez, Aerocivil's spokesman.

The Colombian government has already granted concessions to run and upgrade the airports of Cali, the country's third-largest city, and Cartagena, the main tourist destination on the Caribbean coast.

The government also plans to auction concession rights to smaller airports on the Caribbean islands of San Andres and Providencia, off the shores of Nicaragua.

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