Glossary

Airport procurement glossary

29 terms you meet between an airport master plan and a signed contract, in plain English: from funding and planning, through notices and procedures, to the portals where airport work is published.

Planning and funding

Airport master plan: An airport's long-term development plan, typically covering about 20 years: traffic forecasts, the facilities needed to handle them, where those facilities will go and in which phases. In the United States, FAA Advisory Circular 150/5070-6B guides how master plans are prepared; ICAO's Airport Planning Manual (Doc 9184, Part 1) is the international reference. A master plan rarely names contracts, but it is the earliest public map of future work.
Airport Layout Plan (ALP): In the United States, the drawing set that shows an airport's existing and planned facilities. An airport needs an FAA-approved ALP before projects on it can receive federal Airport Improvement Program funding.
Capital improvement program (CIP): An airport's multi-year list of planned capital projects with budgets and timing, usually published with its annual budget or financial plan. In the United States, airports share an Airports Capital Improvement Plan (ACIP) with the FAA. A project in the CIP has moved from idea to intended spend, which makes it a strong early signal.
Airport Improvement Program (AIP): The FAA grant programme that funds planning and development at public-use airports in the United States that are part of the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS). AIP grant awards are published and show which airports have funding for which projects.
Passenger facility charge (PFC): A fee of up to 4.50 US dollars per boarding passenger that US airports may charge, with FAA approval, to fund eligible projects such as terminals, runways and noise mitigation. PFC applications and approvals describe the projects the money is for.
Regulatory settlement: At airports with economic regulation, such as Heathrow under the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the regulator sets the charges the airport may levy and the capital investment it expects for a multi-year period. The capital plan in a settlement is published long before the related contracts are tendered.
Development Consent Order (DCO): The planning permission needed in England for a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, which includes airport developments that add capacity for at least 10 million passengers a year. The Planning Inspectorate examines the application and the Secretary of State decides. Gatwick, Luton and Heathrow expansion plans have each gone through or entered this process.
Public-private partnership (PPP): A long-term contract in which a private party designs, builds, finances and often operates airport infrastructure, and is repaid through charges or payments from the public owner. Many new airports and terminals outside Europe and North America are procured this way, often as a concession.

Notices and stages

Prior information notice (PIN): An EU procurement notice in which a buyer announces contracts it plans to award, often months before the tender itself. Under the EU utilities rules that cover many airport operators it is called a periodic indicative notice, and it can serve as the call for competition. A PIN is one of the earliest formal signs of an upcoming airport tender.
Market consultation: A buyer's contact with the market before it tenders, to test requirements, solutions and timing. It can be announced in a notice, on the buyer's website or at an industry day. In the UK it is called preliminary market engagement and can be announced with its own notice.
Request for information (RFI): An informal request to suppliers for information about products, capabilities or prices before a procurement. An RFI is not a tender and leads to no contract, but it shows what the buyer is planning.
Contract notice: The formal call for competition: the notice in which a buyer invites suppliers to tender or to request to participate, with the procedure, deadlines and award criteria. On TED it is the notice most people mean by a tender.
Pre-qualification: The first stage of a two-stage procurement, in which suppliers show they meet the selection criteria (experience, finances, certifications) before they are invited to tender. Also called a request to participate, expression of interest or, in the UK, a selection questionnaire.
Design contest: A competition, judged by a jury, for a plan or design such as a terminal or airport city concept. The EU rules have a separate notice type for design contests, and the winner is often offered the follow-on design contract.
Contract award notice: The notice published after a contract has been awarded, naming the supplier and often the value and duration. In the EU it is due within 30 days of the contract being concluded. Award notices show who is winning airport work and when contracts will come up again.
Standstill period: In EU procurement, the waiting period between telling bidders who won and signing the contract, at least 10 days when the decision is sent electronically. Losing bidders can challenge the decision during this period.
Re-compete: The new tender for work that is already under contract, when the current contract approaches its end. The duration in a contract award notice tells you roughly when a re-compete is due, which gives challengers years of notice.

Procedures and contract types

Utilities Directive (2014/25/EU): The EU procurement rules for entities in water, energy, transport and postal services, including entities that operate airports. They are more flexible than the rules for public authorities, for example in the choice of procedure, the use of qualification systems and the maximum length of framework agreements.
Qualification system: A standing list of pre-qualified suppliers that a utility, such as an airport operator, keeps for categories of work under the EU utilities rules. It is announced once with a notice on the existence of a qualification system; later contracts can be awarded among the qualified suppliers without a separate contract notice. Suppliers who are not on the list rarely see those tenders.
Framework agreement: An agreement with one or more suppliers that fixes terms for contracts the buyer can call off during its term, at most 4 years for public authorities and 8 years for utilities under the EU rules. Much airport consultancy, maintenance and minor works is bought through frameworks, so the framework tender is the moment to get in.
Restricted procedure: A two-stage EU procedure: any supplier can ask to take part, the buyer selects a shortlist, and only the shortlisted suppliers tender. It is common for larger airport works and systems contracts.
Competitive dialogue: An EU procedure for complex contracts in which the buyer discusses solutions with shortlisted suppliers before they submit final tenders. Used for projects where the airport cannot fully specify the solution in advance, such as large systems or partnerships.
Concession: A contract in which the supplier is paid mainly by the right to operate a service and earn from it, rather than by the airport. Retail, food and beverage, car parking and advertising are typical airport concessions; in the EU they fall under the Concessions Directive (2014/23/EU).
Ground handling tender: At larger EU airports, the number of ground handlers for baggage, ramp, fuel and freight handling may be limited, to no fewer than two. The handlers are then selected through a tender under the Ground Handling Directive (96/67/EC), for a period of up to seven years.
Design and build: A contract in which one supplier is responsible for both the design and the construction of a facility, instead of the airport appointing a designer first and a contractor later. When an airport chooses design and build, the window for separate design consultants closes.

Portals and codes

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily): The online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU, where contracts above the EU thresholds must be published, including those of airport operators. TED carries prior information notices, contract notices, qualification systems, design contests and award notices.
CPV codes: The Common Procurement Vocabulary: the EU classification codes that describe what a contract buys. For example, 45235000 covers construction work for airfields, runways and manoeuvring surfaces. Searching by CPV code alone misses airport work filed under general codes, which is why AiroSignal also reads titles and descriptions.
Supplier registration: Many airport operators, especially in the Gulf and Asia, only invite suppliers that have registered on their own supplier portal. Registration is not a tender, but without it you will not see the tender.
Early signal: AiroSignal's term for a public event that tells you procurement is likely to follow: a funding decision, a master plan or capital programme, a planning approval, a market consultation or a prior information notice. Early signals come months or years before the contract notice.

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