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s recent global industry developments push countries to improve airport standards to meet the demands of passengers, Australian banking provider Macquarie Capital is offering some advice to Indonesia.

John Walker, Macquarie Capital senior managing director, said that Indonesia could use Athens International Airport as an example of a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme to develop its airports.

“Athens International Airport is the world’s first Build, Own, Operate, Transfer [BOOT] project in the airport sector and an example of a successful PPP project,” Walker told a seminar on Thursday.

Walker said that the private sector held 45 percent ownership in the airport with the Greek state holding the rest.

The Greek government made an Airport Development Agreement (ADA) that stipulated that the state could not own more than 55 percent of the airport and no private party could own more than 50 percent.

“It takes 30 years of concessions to build, own and operate the airport, with ownership to be transferred back to the Greek government in 2026,” Walker said.

The agreement also set out the rules on airport charges; it stipulated that the airport company was allowed to receive charges for all costs incurred in operating the airport, depreciation, return of 15 percent on the airport, to be paid in equity or cumulatively over the term of the concession.

The Athens airport is now the No. 1 airport in Greece and served 15.4 million passengers in 2010, Walker said.

Walker mentioned Macquarie’s partnership with the Belgian government to develop Brussels’ airport with partial privatization under the private model.

He said that Brussels’ airport underwent partial privatization via trade sale of 70 percent of the airport operating company and the Belgium government retained 30 percent in a project worth ¤1.635 billion (US$2.31 billion).

“Focusing on the competitiveness and service quality, stakeholder and community engagement were also the keys to successfully implementing the partial private model,” he said.

Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono said that the Indonesian government would only contribute 20 percent of the total investment needed to develop airports while the rest would be contributed by private sector and state-owned enterprises, using the BOOT scheme. (nfo)