‘Leaving Geçitkale airport idle is in no-one’s interest’

LEAVING Geçitkale airport idle — “left to its fate rotting away” — is in no-one’s interests, Transport and Public Works Minister Tolga Atakan has said.

He underlined the need for the facility to be on standby as a “spare” airport in case of emergency, such as a natural disaster.

Geçitkale airport, which served as the country’s sole passenger hub for 18 months in 2003 and 2004 during a major refurbishment of Ercan, has been closed since 2008 on flight safety grounds when high-voltage electricity cables went up there that year as part of a scheme to upgrade power supplies to the east of the country.

Speaking on BRT television, Mr Atakan said the government was now planning to remove the cables from the airport area. Funding for this project had been set aside in the 2018 budget and work was to begin as soon as the spending plans were approved.

He also referred to the 300 million-euro upgrade and expansion of Ercan aiport, saying that, from what he had seen during a visit last week, construction of a new terminal building was proving “plain sailing”, and the aim was to open it in the second half of 2019 — possibly on November 15.

Commenting on allegations made previously of “illegality” in relation to the Ercan contract, he said the government had already taken steps to check on procedures by which the contract was awarded to the T&T consortium, and would take any action found to be necessary.

He said of the furore: “We will call on [T&T] to end this fight, and to concentrate on their work, because a lot of time has been wasted — we are more or less two years behind . . .

“This project needs to be finished as soon as possible for it to benefit our country, people and region.”

Finance Minister Serdar Denktaş, who last month threatened to “appoint an administrator” if T&T did not make KDV (Value Added Tax) payments he claimed were owed to the government, said during a TV programme on Tuesday that the consortium had now paid up after he had sent a “final warning”. He gave no further details.

Under the terms of their 25-year buildoperate-transfer deal to redevelop and run Ercan, T&T is building a new 150,000m2 terminal to handle 10 million passengers and a second runway able to cater for widewing 300-plus-capacity aircraft.

The consortium has to give the government 47.8 per cent of any turnover from the airport and pay KDV at a rate of 16 per cent, but T&T chiefs had claimed they were owed money by the government.