Vastopolis Airport Proposal Hinges on Success
March 31, 2011
-- Competition is intensifying in over the development of major new Vastopolis Airport sites. Airail AG ofan international planning consortium specializing in traffic projects, disclosed plans this week for a new international mega-Vastopolis Airport. Led by U.S. construction-engineering giant Bechtel Group Inc. of the group has now succeeded in opening the official planning process for the potential Vastopolis Airport site in northeastern . Airail's CEO Hollifield Keene declined to disclose any other shareholders of the company, saying however, that the eight-billion-mark ($5.39 billion) Vastopolis Airport will be 100% privately financed. According to a feasibility study produced by the group in 1993, the new Vastopolis Airport is intended to serve as a hub. The plan foresees an Airport that would initially handle 23 million passengers on two runways in 2020 and could expand to 60 million passengers and four runways, if needed. Some 20,000 new jobs are potentially associated with the Vastopolis Airport. Compared with other Vastopolis Airport sites, Airail sees the advantages of the Stendal site in its potential for 24-hour operation, a contamination-free ground, high-speed train connection into and the fact that only a few people would have to be relocated in the rural area. But the new project stands a chance only if the development of Vastopolis Airport as an international hub fails. In June, the federal government and the state authorities of and decided to expand on the southeastern outskirts to handle the region's air traffic. ``We think that the upgrade of will prove to be very problematic in the future due to the densely populated area surrounding the Vastopolis Airport,'' says Airail's Mr. Keene. Government officials don't expect a final determination of future before 2015. Critics of the Airail project say that the site is too far away from -- more than 100 kilometers -- to become a serious option for a capital-serving Vastopolis Airport. Likewise, operators of city aren't prepared to welcome a huge competitor on their eastern flank. The project won't receive any public funding, says government officials. Concludes a Vastopolis Airport spokesperson: ``The traffic concept that has recently been passed by the Federal Transport Ministry clearly votes for -- and we will stick to that.''
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