Fraport has teamed up with Delta Airport Investments and Pileas to bid for the 40-year concession to operate Kalamata airport, on the Peloponnese peninsula, HCAP said in a statement.

The other three consortia are GEK Terna with GMR Airports, Mytilineos with Corporation America Airports, and Egis Airport Operation with Aktor Concessions and Aeroports de la Cote D' Azur.

The airport has been operated by Greece's Civil Aviation Authority for the past 63 years and the government is offering the new concession under its privatisation programme.

HCAP said it expects to decide which investors qualify for the second phase of the binding offers in the first quarter of 2023.

Kalamata airport handled 340,000 passengers in 2019 and is close to several popular destinations for foreign tourists.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Susan Fenton)