Investment in the Tashkent new airport project promoted by the Uzbekistan government will be finalized in the first half of the year. Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC), Korea Overseas Infrastructure and Urban Development Corporation (KIND), and others including Japanese trading houses and airlines will take part in investment and operations to build the largest international airport in Central Asia.
According to the development industry on Apr. 6, the main investors in the Tashkent new airport project plan to sign a shareholders' agreement and a concession agreement with the Uzbekistan government in the first half of the year to establish the new airport.
The total project cost is $2.5 billion (about 3.78 trillion won), of which 41% will be contributed by Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC), KIND, Japanese general trading house Sojitz, Jalux, the trading company of the Japan Airlines (JAL) Group, and Saudi Arabian infrastructure investment company Vision Invest, among others. The Uzbekistan airports authority also plans to invest some equity. The remaining 59% will be raised through senior collateralized loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and commercial banks. An industry official said, "Investment institutions from each country are in the final stages of coordinating their investment scale."
With the funds raised, a holding company (Holdco) will be established in the Netherlands, and this holding company will set up a project company in Uzbekistan to carry out engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the airport and to handle facility management, maintenance and technical support.
This is a large public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure project in which the Uzbekistan government will create a new international airport about 35 kilometers south of the existing Tashkent airport. After completion, it is expected to become the largest international airport in Central Asia, capable of accommodating up to 54 million people a year.
Construction will take four years, and once the airport is built, investors will operate it for 31 years. To this end, Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) in Oct. last year also signed a new airport operation services contract with Vision Invest, one of the key investors. Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) also decided to establish a separate operating subsidiary for the operation of the Tashkent new airport. If financing agreements, permits, and collateral arrangements are completed within this year, construction will begin, and the new airport could begin operations as early as 2031.
Park Sung-sik, a professor in the Department of Aviation Operation at Korea National University of Transportation, said, "Airports in Europe or the Americas are often more than 100 years old and located within major cities, which limits large-scale expansion, but Tashkent faces no major obstacles to airport expansion," adding, "Current annual usage is projected at under 10 million, but with expectations that future passenger numbers will grow and the airport will serve as a logistics hub, the Uzbekistan government appears to be actively pushing airport construction."
Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) and KIND have been actively participating in overseas airport construction projects since the 2020s. Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) in Dec. last year signed a contract with the Uzbekistan airports authority for the development and operation of Urgench Airport. By 2028, it is developing the project under a build-transfer-operate (BTO) model, constructing a passenger terminal (total floor area of 39,000 square meters) capable of accommodating 3 million people a year, a cargo terminal (1,400 square meters), and auxiliary facilities, transferring ownership, and directly operating the facilities for 19 years to take the revenue. KIND is in talks to conclude a financing agreement (investment in debt securities) for the project.
Earlier in 2021, Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) also took part in a public-private partnership (PPP) to develop and operate Hang Nadim Airport on Batam, Indonesia, valued at about 600 billion won. Forming a consortium with local corporations, it plans to remodel and expand the existing Terminal 1 of Hang Nadim Airport and build Terminal 2 by 2040.