The island’s new airports will be delivered ahead of time, according to the chief executive of the multinational venture that will build and operate the brand new terminal buildings and runway extensions at Larnaca and Paphos at a cost of EUR 645 mln.
The smaller Paphos airport and its new facilities will delivered by the end of 2008 and the bigger one in Larnaca by the end of 2009.
Bob Manning, CEO of Hermes Airports Ltd., told the Financial Mirror in an exclusive interview that Larnaca “will be a world-class airport. Spectacular!”
With over 20 years experience in building and running airports in Australia and around the world, he was recruited for the Cyprus job by Vancouver Airports, one of the leading airport designers and operators in the world and an equity shareholder in Hermes Airports.
“This contract is a turnkey project for ‘design and build’, which means that Bouygues International produces a comprehensive design which is built by expert local and international partners, and we review the design packages as we go along,” Manning explained.
“We hardly ever deviate from such designs, unless some particular issues come up. So far everything has been going ahead smoothly and we will even finish the new airport (at Larnaca) ahead of time,” he said.
The government awarded Hermes Airports a build-operate-transfer (BOT) concession agreement for 25 years in May which should earn the state some CYP 2 bln (EUR 3.48 bln) during that period.
The present airport terminal was built in 1975 and has been subject to many extensions and with an ability to handle some 2.5 mln passengers a year, as opposed to the present-day traffic of some 6 mln passengers a year.
The BOT contract is for a new passenger terminal at Larnaca with a design capacity for 7.5 mln passengers a year scheduled for delivery to the public on November 11, 2009. A second phase will see the extension of the new terminal raise its capacity to 9 mln passengers and extend the runway from 2,700m to 3,500m by 2013.
There will be a total of 16 passenger boarding bridges accepting almost all types of aircraft ranging from the small Airbus A321 to the larger Boeing 747-400 Jumbo.
Work should be completed on June 2, 2009 after which there will be a phase-in period to test the facilities.
The Paphos project will see a new passenger terminal with a capacity for 2.7 mln passengers and runway extension to 3,100m for delivery on November 11, 2008.
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It’s all about tourism
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But Manning said that if
“We’re not in the business of just operating an airport – we’re in the business of tourism and tourism is all about what you do when you get there,” to the final destination, he said.
Manning said that it was up to all parties concerned to review the island’s tourism marketing and plan ahead for the long-term.
A round table discussion will be held at the end of January with the participation of all interested parties – the airport operators, airline representatives, officials from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) – in order to review all issues.
“We can’t succeed without them and they can’t succeed without us,” Manning said.
He said that with new projects being delivered as planned, people get a bit confident and show more interest in public projects. Even the new port development in Larnaca should gain from the airport project and the new air of confidence.
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Fee hikes
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As regards criticism that airport fees were hiked half-way through the 2006 summer season, Manning said that “any price rise is the result of two things – new buildings and privatization.” He added, however, that the
“It isn’t an option to maintain the existing buildings and refurbish them,” he said. Eventually, after the new terminals are built and operation, the old buildings could be utilized for other services such as cargo, aircraft maintenance, etc.
The new Larnaca terminal building is based on a previous Aeroport des Paris (ATP) design produced in 1994 for an airport that accommodates some 3 mln tourists a year in an economy very much like that of Cyprus, driven by tourism.
It will be on three levels, with the third level used for departures and the second for arrivals. The highway extension has already been built and the traffic will revolve around short and long-stay parking, as well as quick drop-off points for individuals, taxis and buses.
There will be no conflict in the two directions of traffic (arrivals and departures), while passengers will walk straight into the main areas and find their gates very easily.
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Passenger growth
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“We’re planning for passenger growth every year, with a long-term target of 3.5 to 4% each year,” Manning said.
Asked if the new airport will be able to handle wide-body and long-haul aircraft, such as the Airbus A380, he explained that aviation in
“It’s all about scheduling, and at present all the traffic is in summer. We should see how we can spread that out more evenly in the future.”
As regards the matter of having more runways to cope with the increased traffic, as was the case during the evacuation from
Realising that fuel economy and emissions are the new buzzwords for airlines, the new airport operator has already recruited a manager with “good environmental sense.”
“Hermes Airports wants to be and wants to be seen as a good environmental manager,” Manning said, adding that “anything that saves fuel and lowers emissions we will be looking into.”
He added that there is even some solar power utilization on the design of the new buildings.
Manning said that the full liberalisation of airport services will begin in the first and second quarters of 2008, a year prior to the transfer from the old Larnaca terminal building to the new.
Eventually, there will be three operators working under one roof, with CTC-ARI already operating as the master concessionaire for the shops and retail services. CTC-ARI is a joint venture partnership between the 10% local shareholder CTC and the Irish Aer Rianta International.
A food and beverage (F&B) announcement will be made “soon”, Manning added, while the issue of security of the building, as well as aviation safety is the responsibility of the government.
