Islamabad Airport privatisation proving difficult... but may go to Turkish-led consortium

While India's airport privatisation process got under way, albeit falteringly, in 2006, it took until 2022 for Pakistan's Aviation Ministry to start a similar procedure.

Initially, it focuses on the capital city airport, Islamabad, with the intention to extend it to Lahore and Karachi if successful.

It hasn't been successful yet. The only remaining organisation initially to have shown interest, the TERG consortium of Turkish and UK interests, submitted a below-threshold concession fee offer, which has been referred to the IFC (acting on Pakistan's behalf in the matter).

It may well end up being accepted, because after the initial expressions of interest investors have not been exactly queuing around the block.

Pakistan favours certain friendly countries in the vicinity to take on this challenge - and that is what it is, with distinctly unfavourable economic circumstances and the threat of another flare-up between Pakistan and India; despite some promise in the long term, no rapid short term scalability of the airport is in prospect.

Meanwhile, the government is finding it equally hard to privatise the national airline.

Perhaps these are the reasons that collectively have turned much of the global airport investment fraternity away, but if Pakistan is serious about expanding its air transport business, they are really the ones it needs to be attracting.