La Société Anonyme des Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur appointed Skytanking after a Europe-wide tender process, in which Skytanking had to demonstrate its capabilities in financing, engineering, construction and operations in airport fuel projects of this size and scope.
The project includes the construction of aviation fuel storage tanks with a total capacity of 5,400 m³ that will be connected to truck receipt facilities by 2 underground pipelines. Skytanking will also build and operate the loading facilities for aircraft fuellers, as well as the into-plane operations area. The threefold increase in storage capacity will relieve some of the supply issues at Nice airport by raising jet-fuel stocks from 1.5 to 5 days.
Construction is expected to start in 2014 after the design and permitting phase and the facilities will be completed by 2018. The Délégation de Service Public will run over 30 years and is the first BOOT contract to be used at a French airport for an aviation fuel project. BOOT stands for Build Own Operate Transfer and is a commonly-used contract structure for infrastructure projects that is also becoming popular with airports that need new fuel facilities. It allows the airport to outsource the financing, design, construction and operation of aviation fuel facilities to an independent expert. At the end of the 30-year contract, the facilities will be transferred to airport ownership.