Airport & Infrastructure
The structure is the strategy.
An airport is not a building. It is a concession, a route policy, a financing structure and a set of long-term relationships that happen to have a runway attached. Most airport development plans fail on the structure long before they fail on the concrete.
What we do
From feasibility to a bankable structure.
01
Feasibility and masterplanning
What the asset can realistically become, over what period, with which phases, and what has to be true at each gate.
02
Concession structuring
Build-operate-transfer, build-own-operate, and the terms that decide whether an asset is financeable. Concession length, stabilisation clauses and revenue structure decide more than design does.
03
Public-private financing
Structures that development banks and private investors will actually fund, with the state keeping ownership of the asset and, where it chooses, a share of the return.
04
Air service development
How airports attract carriers: route incentives, bilateral agreements, fifth-freedom rights and minimum revenue guarantees. The instruments are proven. The sequencing is where it goes wrong.
05
Ground infrastructure
Private aviation terminals, handling, fuel, cargo and cold chain. The facilities that turn traffic into revenue.
06
Airport city and economic zones
Logistics parks, free trade regimes and maintenance clusters that turn an airport from a transit point into a regional economic engine.
Working with governments
The state is not a bystander.
It owns the gateway, grants the concession, sets aviation policy and provides the political credibility that international operators and banks require. Private parties and development banks can carry most of the investment and most of the risk. A workable structure gives each side what it is good at, and says so explicitly.
We also say what would make a project fail.
An advisory document that only argues in favour is not advice. It is promotion, and a development bank will read it as such.
Where we have done this
National and regional aviation masterplanning in South America, Southeast Asia, China and the Gulf, and advisory to regional airports and public bodies in the Netherlands.
Common questions
What we are often asked.
What does an airport development advisor do?
Independent strategic masterplanning for states and regions, from feasibility and route policy to a concession structure designed to be bankable.
How is an airport concession structured?
Usually as a build-operate-transfer or build-own-operate concession. The terms decide whether the asset is financeable: concession length, stabilisation clauses and revenue structure decide more than design does.
How do you make an airport project bankable?
By getting the structure right before the design: a realistic feasibility study with clear phases and gates, concession terms a lender can accept, and a public-private financing structure that development banks and private investors will actually fund, with the state keeping ownership of the asset.
How do countries attract new airlines?
Through air service development: route incentives, bilateral agreements, fifth-freedom rights and minimum revenue guarantees. The instruments are proven. The sequencing is where it goes wrong.
Other expertise