Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) upheld a ruling of a lower panel that deselected Denmark's Copenhagen Airports A/S as the winner of the concession procedure and obliged the competent government authorities to assess the bids of the other 2 candidates, Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide, in partnership with Bulgaria's BM Star EOOD, and Vinci Airports-Vinci Concessions. The magistrates held that the competition committee should have disqualified the Danish company for failing to rectify in time its paperwork omissions. The committee admitted to the procedure a candidate that did not meet the requirement for at least two years of experience in running at least two airports with annual traffic of over 2 mln passengers and one airport with annual traffic over 5 mln passengers and for an investment of at least EUR 100 mln in an airport project over the past 5 years, the magistrates said. In a comment to the court ruling, transport minister Petar Mutafchiev said that the government will comply with the SAC decision and that a new concession procedure for the airports in Varna and Bourgas is unlikely. Copenhagen Airports commented the judgement will delay the expansion and modernisation of the airports. The company said it will begin talks this week with the transport ministry to determine the future course of action for the successful completion of the concession deal. Fraport said it is ready to start negotiations and sign the concession contract immediately after the government takes the relevant decision. The German company said it also ready to make quick investments to prepare the 2 airports for the upcoming summer season.