Panama to hand management of three airports to single concessionaire

Panama's government has announced that three international airports in the country will be handed to a single company for administration under a single concession. 

President José Raúl Mulino said on Thursday that the request for expressions of interest to manage the Enrique Malek–David airport in Chiriquí province, Scarlett Martínez in Coclé province and Enrique Adolfo Jiménez in Colón province, will be published in the coming days. 

“The truth is that Panama makes no profit from these airports. On the contrary, it loses a lot of money while the airports have deteriorated,” he was quoted as saying during his weekly press conference by broadcaster TVN. 

The company that will be selected must have experience in airport management and sufficient liquidity, he added. Interested parties will be given access to a database to obtain all the information they require on the airports in order to participate in the selection process. 

“It is unheard of to have airports of such size and nothing going through them. The idea is to offer all three in concession under a single operator and take the burden away from the State and Tocumen [the state-owned operator],” Mulino was cited as saying by news outlet Panamá América.