PMFORUM Breaking News
Breaking News in the Project Management World
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Brasov International Airport Construction Project launched
Reported by Florin Gheorghiu in Bucharest
On 15th of April after some years of feasibility analysis and funding option explorations, the Project for a new international airport in Brasov, ROMANIA has finally turned on its the way.
Well within the heart of the country at the crossroads between East and West of the region the new airport is meant to complete a missing loop to the transportation chain in the country and will constitute a link on a mid range between Transylvania and locations in mainland Europe.
The project has a lengthy pre-start period and it was expected to start some years ago since the rapid development of tourism in Brasov City particularly and of the region in general. Favorable conditions to get the works on the road were finally met in recent weeks when a consistent package of technical documents as well as project funds were identified.
Eight years lapsed from the first initiative taken between local authority and Mr. Ronal Weisberger, president of Intelcan, the Company which is selected as Main Contractor for the Project and associated sponsor with the local government for project development. According to Mr. Weisberger, Brasov International Airport will have one runaway strip of 2800 meters and will serve each year 2 million passengers (400 passengers per hour) and 6000 tons of freight.
Regional and European operators are interested to land on the new airport either with regulated or charter flights and technically speaking ATR and BOEING as well as AIRBUS with their mid range jet liners are expected to sign in for using the airport services during their flights. Specialized charters and LLC (Low Cost Carriers) are also invited to land to Brasov after completion and commissioning.
Every destination within 1500 kilometers range could be covered when using flights from this new airport. Big names in the field like Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, ELAL, WizAir, Blue Jet, SpanAir, and KLM have already shown their interest and in some instances even companies from China have shown willingness to use the ground services.
The overall budget with the project development is estimated to 90 million Euros with a time to completion of 30 months while the payback time is somewhere at 12 years.
Intelcan is not at its first challenge in Romania: the Canadian contractor has vast experience in airport construction industry. They completed the terminals 1 and 3of Havana Airport, built 3 airports in Bulgaria and other AFB‘s in Romania. Next year Intelcan will kick off 2 new airport construction sites in Quito (Ecuador) and Kingston, Jamaica.
For Brasov, ROMANIA the project just started at the right moment, months before the highway to stretch over nearby the City limits. Having Bechtel currently progressing with the highway strip cutting the country from South to North there might be voices who want to quench down the local enthusiasm after the airport project kickoff.
With a distance of only 150 km from the next international airport in capital Bucharest it is hard to believe that if the highway would have been in place the feasibility study of the new airport would made decision makers accept this project.
However, besides the figures and investment analysis, it is a good chance for the City of Brasov to take advantage from this infrastructure project: tourism could be the first to benefit out of this local effort to make air operators to land and takeoff to and from Brasov since the city attracted many tourists for years even though neither highway nor airport are among the landmarks.
With a good to excellent hotel network, skiing infrastructures and scenic landscapes it seems that the future in tourism is secured when the air links will connect the City with Europe without resorting to the crowded capital of Bucharest for detouring. More than this, there are other industries waiting in the pipeline to provide services for the new airport and this will surely add value to the region and cash to the City Hall.
On 15th of April after some years of feasibility analysis and funding option explorations, the Project for a new international airport in Brasov, ROMANIA has finally turned on its the way.
The project has a lengthy pre-start period and it was expected to start some years ago since the rapid development of tourism in Brasov City particularly and of the region in general. Favorable conditions to get the works on the road were finally met in recent weeks when a consistent package of technical documents as well as project funds were identified.
Regional and European operators are interested to land on the new airport either with regulated or charter flights and technically speaking ATR and BOEING as well as AIRBUS with their mid range jet liners are expected to sign in for using the airport services during their flights. Specialized charters and LLC (Low Cost Carriers) are also invited to land to Brasov after completion and commissioning.
Every destination within 1500 kilometers range could be covered when using flights from this new airport. Big names in the field like Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, ELAL, WizAir, Blue Jet, SpanAir, and KLM have already shown their interest and in some instances even companies from China have shown willingness to use the ground services.
The overall budget with the project development is estimated to 90 million Euros with a time to completion of 30 months while the payback time is somewhere at 12 years.
Intelcan is not at its first challenge in Romania: the Canadian contractor has vast experience in airport construction industry. They completed the terminals 1 and 3of Havana Airport, built 3 airports in Bulgaria and other AFB‘s in Romania. Next year Intelcan will kick off 2 new airport construction sites in Quito (Ecuador) and Kingston, Jamaica.
However, besides the figures and investment analysis, it is a good chance for the City of Brasov to take advantage from this infrastructure project: tourism could be the first to benefit out of this local effort to make air operators to land and takeoff to and from Brasov since the city attracted many tourists for years even though neither highway nor airport are among the landmarks.
With a good to excellent hotel network, skiing infrastructures and scenic landscapes it seems that the future in tourism is secured when the air links will connect the City with Europe without resorting to the crowded capital of Bucharest for detouring. More than this, there are other industries waiting in the pipeline to provide services for the new airport and this will surely add value to the region and cash to the City Hall.
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