The French airport group Aeroports de Paris and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Group are to ‘enter into a long-term industrial cooperation’ and take out an 8% cross shareholding in each others’ operations, Schiphol said in a statement on Tuesday.

The agreement will run for an initial 12 years and ‘create a leading global alliance in the airport industry,’ Schiphol said.
The two airports have identified combined revenue and cost synergies of around €71 million a year by 2013 and expect to reduce capital expenditure by an average €18 million annually from that date onwards, the statement said.
Aeroports de Paris is listed on the stock exchange although the French state remains the biggest shareholder. Schiphol is still in the hands of national and local governments.
Around 20% of Schiphol is owned by Amsterdam city council which has blocked the airport’s privatisation – a long-desired wish of the airport group’s chairman Gerlach Cerfontaine.
According to the NRC, Schiphol is paying €530m for its stake in Aeroports de Paris, representing a premium of almost €20 on its current share price. The French are paying €370m for the Schiphol stake, with both the state and Amsterdam tendering some of their shares.
The Financieele Dagblad says a closer alliance between the two airports will also fit in with the Air France/KLM alliance. Air France officials already call Schiphol ‘Gare du Nord’ (north station), the paper says.