Awaiting a facelift ... Zagreb Airport
After being the named the new CEO of Zagreb Airport, Tonči Peović has listed a few major projects at Zagreb Airport which he hopes to see completed. These include the reconstruction of the current terminal, the construction of a new terminal and finally the upgrade of the current runway. According to the Zagreb Airport master plan a second runway should be built some 2.175 metres from the existing runway. The new runway will prove a major headache for the management as a total of 450 buildings will have to be demolished to accommodate the new runway. Furthermore, the current military base at the airport would have to be moved and the construction of a new road bypass expected to be built close by will also stand in the runway’s way. Peović did not comment about the new runway and the project might be on the waiting list for some time. The new Zagreb Airport CEO also said that the airport would lower tariffs so Zagreb would become attractive for more airlines. He added that the national flag carrier Croatia Airlines would no longer enjoy privileged handling prices. Zagreb Airport is currently served by 13 airlines, only 2 of which are low cost.Peović replaced the previous longtime airport CEO Boško Matković. The Croatian media have been reporting about Matković's extremely high pay, 100.000 Kunas or 13.698 Euros per month. However, Matković has said that the money was not just pure income but also bonuses for the good work he had done. The media have also been reporting that Matković's dismissal was part of a political game, but the Ministry of infrastructure has dismissed those allegations, claiming the reason for his dismissal was bad airport management.
I made a comment before on this blog that when you consider what the previous master plan included, then maybe the 280 million euro project was not as over priced as we first thought.
ReplyDeleteIn that 280 million was to be included the new terminal, expanded apron and taxi ways, a hotel and a retail complex with shops, banks and cafe's, new car par plus the new roads and a tunnel connecting the shopping / hotel complex to the terminal.
I was catching up on my Australian Aviation (June, 2009) reading and read an article about the expansion of Canberra airport and the new terminal which is to be built. Price tag = $350 million Australian. This is 206 million euro and includes only the new terminal, extended apron and new car park.
Canberra airport handled 2.8 million passengers last year.
Also, does anyone know at what point, either passenger numbers or aircraft movements would a second runway really be needed at any airport since, in this case, metrological conditions is not a requirement for a 'crosswind' runway?
London Luton handles nearly 10 million pax each year with only one runway and one terminal and very limited taxiways. My personal feeling is that massive terminal buildings and overcapacity for runways is just an ego trip for management and politicians. Most major terminals become shopping malls to fill space and generate revenue to pay for the original over specification. Zagreb will never become a major airport, it is just a small regional airport with limited market.
ReplyDelete10 years is not that far away and it is not unreasonable to assume that over 5 million passengers will use Zagreb airport annually in about 10 years. A new terminal is needed. The question is what will be best for Zagreb now and the future.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't get is the new runway proposal for this current size of the airport. The first one is hardly used to its potential, and you can't divide military/civilian traffic onto parallel (or adjoining) runways.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the busiest single-runway airport in the world (is it SAN rather than LTN)? And how many more times the passengers does it get compared to ZAG? A waste of money given the urgent priority must be the new terminal building...
And in an unrelated topic, is Peovic on 100,000kn each month too?
@ Q400
Don't forget though that you are paying Australian wages to the workers for the redevelopment - much higher than in Croatia! Not too sure about material costs though.
The biggest one runway airport in the world is London Gatwick, which handles over 34 million passengers per year!
ReplyDeleteHowever, the number of pax/runway depends on the average aircraft size. An airport like Zagreb with its traffic and aircraft type profile could easily get to 12-15 million before any thought would be required for a 2nd runway.
Peovic must also be a criminal - the difference is his mates in the construction business also know how to build runways, not just expensive terminals...