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Greece's government announced on Tuesday the finalization of the sale of operation rights for 14 regional airports to the German Fraport-Slentel consortium over the next four decades. The deal was the first privatization to be concluded under the new third bailout that was ratified by the Greek parliament last Friday.
The agreement on the concession of the airports of the northern city port of Thessaloniki and several popular tourist destinations, such as the islands of Mykonos, Santorini, Corfu and Rhodes among others for a total of 1.23 billion euros (1.36 billion U.S. dollars) was formally published at the government gazette.
The sale of the 14 airports to the German investors is also the first privatization to be concluded since the Leftist-led government coalition assumed power after the January general elections.
The agreement was initially scheduled to close in late 2014 under the previous conservative-led government, but "freezed" in the pre-election period.
The Radical Left SYRIZA party strongly opposed the entire privatization program since the beginning of Greek bailouts in 2010 as a "sell off of state assets." The Leftist government had initially said that the terms of the tender would be reviewed.
However, the final agreement seems to not include any significant amendments compared to the terms of the tender, according to Tuesday's announcement.
The Leftist government has eventually committed to the 50-billion-euro worth privatization program under the 86-billion-euro worth three-year bailout deal reached with international lenders this summer to keep Greece afloat and in the euro zone.
Greek ministers argued that privatizations will take place under changed conditions in comparison to the past "to benefit Greek economy and people."
The main opposition conservative New Democracy (ND) party commented that the privatization of the 14 regional airports was a positive development, since it opens the way for their upgrade and the creation of thousands of job positions in a country suffering from high unemployment rates. However, ND accused SYRIZA of wasting precious time for months.
The centrist River (Potami) party also welcomed the privatization as a step to boost also the competitiveness of the Greek tourism industry, but criticized the government of failing to improve the terms of the tender to ensure that there will not be dramatic hikes in flight prices for travelers. Enditem
