Brazil raises $600m in privatization auction of 22 airports

Brazil on Wednesday auctioned 22 airports, raising 3.3b reais ($593.11m), with the largest group of airports won by infrastructure company CCR , part of a wave of privatizations that the government is pushing. “We had an extraordinary result in this auction, despite the fact that the COVID pandemic strongly affected all airports”, said Brazil’s Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio de Freitas after the auction ended. Brazil is auctioning airports as the air travel industry undergoes one of its worst crisis in history. The pandemic brought air travel to a standstill last year and while it has been recovering in developed countries like the US, flight demand in Brazil has been weakened recently by a brutal second wave.<br/>