Ferrovial Airports, the airport management subsidiary of the eponymous Spanish construction giant, plans to focus on the US market following its divestment from its UK assets, the company’s CEO Luke Bugeja told AeroTime.
This strategy is motivated in part by the desire to leverage Ferrovial’s already significant presence in the US construction market. Bugeja highlighted the capabilities and deep domain expertise of the company’s US-based engineering and construction teams.
But another factor behind the firm’s interest in US airports is the idea that the market is on the cusp of a major transformation, with the ongoing multi-billion upgrade of the New York airport system expected to trigger, according to Bugeja, an avalanche of new airport investment projects across the country.
Ferrovial Airports plays a leading role in the consortium building the new Terminal One at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). This massive redevelopment project will see the airport’s Terminals 1, 2 and 3 be replaced with a brand new 2.5 million square feet terminal. The new terminal will then be operated under a concession regime that runs to 2060.
Bugeja said the project will become a new benchmark for airport experience in the US and will induce other airports to act. He estimated that around half of US airports need some significant renovation.
Since many airports in the US are owned by state, country, or city governments, they often face a lack of funds to undertake major upgrade projects. The successful implementation of public-private partnership (PPP) projects alongside concession terms that often stretch for four decades or more, could serve as a catalyst to attract fresh private investment in this sector, Bugeja explained.
JFK’s Terminal One will become after Ferrovial Airports’ flagship asset after the firm agreed to the sale to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) of a 25% stake in London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) in November 2023 and then, in November 2024, of its 50% in AGS Airports, the company that manages Glasgow (GLA), Aberdeen (ABZ) and Southampton (SOU) airports in the UK, to Canadian firm AviAlliance.
However, the new focus on the US does not mean that Ferrovial Airports will not consider opportunistic investments in other regions. Bugeja expressed his satisfaction with the performance of Dalaman Airport (DLM), on the Turkish riviera, which Ferrovial Airports currently holds a stake in together with a local partner.
The airport, which currently handles around five million passengers per year, still has plenty of capacity for further growth and traffic is going up, Bugeja said.
Investment in vertiports and sustainable technologies
However, one area where Ferrovial Airports is pausing investment is vertiports. The company was an early entrant into the field of advanced air mobility and even set up a dedicated subsidiary to develop infrastructure for the nascent eVTOL industry.
Bugeja explained that the company is currently taking a wait-and-see approach in this area since it is expected that it may take a bit longer than initially anticipated for advanced air mobility players to be able to roll out operations.
In this regard, Bugeja expects eVTOL operators to make use of existing heliport infrastructure for the first initial testing phases of their rollout, rather than requiring massive new infrastructure development, and at first for this to happen in a limited number of locations, such as the Middle East.
Bugeja ended the conversation highlighting his company’s commitment to investing in sustainable energy at the airports it manages. He pointed out that JFK will have the largest solar farm in New York, with over 12,000 solar panels capable of producing the energy consumption of between 3,000 and 4,000 homes.
He also said that he sees a role for airport operators in facilitating the uptake of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) by airlines, for example, through the construction of settlement tanks to facilitate the storage and blending of SAF.