BOLOGNA AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The project comprises a number of investments at Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (Bologna Airport, BLQ) that are aimed at increasing operational resilience and passenger service standards and improving safety and security performance at the airport. It will also provide additional terminal and landside capacity in order to accommodate traffic growth. In particular, the project includes the renewal and upgrade of the existing terminal facilities, a new apron and a de-icing pad, the renovation of the existing runway system, the acquisition of Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) equipment meeting Standard 3 (S3), the upgrade of the cargo facilities, a multi-storey car park and other minor investments.

Bologna Airport is the seventh busiest airport in Italy. It is one of the TEN-T core network airports and is included in Baltic-Adriatic, the Mediterranean and the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridors. The project will provide additional terminal, airside and landside capacity at the airport in order to accommodate further growth in traffic and to improve operational resilience and passenger service standards.

The project increases the airport's resilience and the level of service and provides additional airport capacity to accommodate future traffic growth at Bologna airport, which is part of the core network of the Trans-European Transport Network for airports, making the project eligible under Article 309 (c), common interest. Without the project, passengers will endure congestion and would eventually need to follow inefficient travel arrangements, such as travelling at less preferred times or through alternative, less preferred airports. Either way such diversion would impose time delays and other costs to passengers, not reflected in airport charges, constituting a market failure, which will increase over time as demand grows.

From a financial point of view, the Bank's loan will provide a valuable contribution to complement available resources, accelerating implementation of the Project. The tenor and other terms of the Bank's financing are currently not available at comparable conditions on the market, and ensure an alignment to the economic life of the asset to be financed. In addition, the lower cost of the Bank's financing improves the affordability of the Project as a whole. The EIB funding would send a strong signal to the market about its financial viability. 

All project components are included in the Bologna Airport 2016-2030 Masterplan, which is an updated and revised version of a former 2009-2023 Master Plan. The 2009-2023 Master Plan was submitted to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, which was approved by the Italian Ministry of Environment (MoE) on the 25th February 2013. As per the provisions of the Directive 2014/52/EU amending the EIA Directive 2011/92/EU, the Competent Authority screened out from a further EIA process the updated 2016-2030 Masterplan on the 26th November 2018.

The Bank will require the Promoter to ensure that contracts for the implementation of the project have been and will be tendered in accordance with the relevant applicable EU procurement legislation, Directive 2014/24/EU, where applicable, as well as Directive 89/665/EEC as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU, with publication of tender notices in the EU Official Journal, as and where required.

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