VINCI becomes largest shareholder in Mexican airport operator OMA

VINCI Airports continues to grow its global airport portfolio, today confirming that it has paid $1.17 billion to take a 29.99% stake in Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte (OMA).

The deal follows the agreeing of terms with OMA earlier this year and means that it becomes the largest single shareholder in the operator of Monterrey International Airport and 12 other Mexican gateways.

Monterrey currently airport handles about half of OMA’s passenger traffic, and the city is Mexico’s industrial capital and second-largest metropolis.

The other major airports in OMA’s netwotk are Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez, Culiacan and Mazatlan and the regional and tourist airports on the Pacific coast and in the centre of the country Acapulco, San Luis Potosí, Torreon, Zihuatanejo, Durango, Zacatecas, Tampico and Reynosa.

Passenger traffic at OMA airports has hovered above pre-health-crisis levels since last July.

Indeed, in the first 11 months of 2022, OMA’s airports handled 21 million passengers and flights to and from 170 destinations ensuring that current traffic levels are more less what thewy were in 2019.

VINCI Airports has pledged to maintain this momentum by addressing the growing demand for domestic travel in the Americas’ third most populated country and for international travel – especially to and from the United States – by starting up direct flights between Monterrey and Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit and Austin.

It has also said that it also roll out its environmental action plan aimed at net zero emissions throughout its network by 2050.

This transaction has cemented VINCI Airports’ position as the world’s leading private operator in its sector and solidified its operation in the Americas, where it is already active in the United States, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.