Mariscal Sucre airport management contract

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In September 2002, the municipal government of Quito granted the rights to manage and operate the existing Mariscal Sucre airport in Quito to Corporacion Quiport. Such transfer of management rights was part of a project to construct a new, larger airport in Quito through a 35 year contract granted also to Corporacion Quiport. The new airport was set to be located in Puembo, 25 km outside Quito. After some changes in the sponsor composition in 2002, Corporacion Quiport was owned by Canadian Aecon (30%), Brasilian Andrade Gutierrez (30%), US Houston Airport System (HAS) (25%) and Canadain Airport Development Corporation (ADC) (15%). Under the sponsor agreement, HAS and ADC were delegated the operation of Mariscal Sucre airport, while the other two partners became responsible for design and construction of the new airport. Corporacion Aeropuerto y Zona Franca del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito (Corpaq), Quito's municipal airport authority, was the public agency granting the contract. Corpaq was established to assume control of the airport from civil aviation authority (DAC). While the central government provided top-level assurance that the concession would not be expropriated, Corpaq conducted the negotiations and was responsible for security and its other obligations under the concession agreement. The project was designed in 2001 after Canadian Aecon approached the Ecuadorian government with an unsolicited proposal to build a new airport for Quito, an infrastructure needed for over three decades. The Ecuadorian government decided to use a Swiss challenge process to deal with Aecon’s proposal. By September 2001, Corpaq and Aecon came out with a project structure (management rights for existing and new airports and a construction contract) that a competing bidder would have to match, but there were no other bids. The contract was then awarded to Corporacion Quiport, a consortium led by Aecon. Corporacion Quiport took over operations of the Mariscal Sucre Airport in November 2002. They were expected to continue those operations until the transfer to the new airport, originally expected in 2007, which eventually got delayed to 2009. After the new airport began to operate, Mariscal Sucre airport would be closed. Under the contracts, operating profits from the existing Quito airport were to fund the construction of the new city airport. The contract for building the new airport did not reach financial closure until 2005. None None