-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Read V.M. de Malar's latest Column: | | | | Politics of Destruction | | | | http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=416 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story: "Berlin Air Hub Cleared for Take-off" (HERALD, March 24,'06)
A more detailed perspective: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1142555964.html <A German court gave the long-awaited green light on Thursday for a new airport in Berlin that would open in 2011 and consolidate the capital's three existing airports into a single hub.> <The idea to develop a single modern airport for Berlin was hatched some 15 years ago, amid the euphoria that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. But as the city's hopes of becoming a booming metropolis faded amid the reality of a shrinking population and huge public debt, the airport project was scaled down. It has now come to symbolise the city's struggle to adjust to re-unification. In 2003, a construction permit was finally granted to transform Schoenefeld -- a modest airport in southeast Berlin that has become a European hub for Easyjet. The new airport will absorb capacity shared between Schoenefeld and Berlin's two western airports, Tegel and Tempelhof. Some 17 million passengers passed through the three Berlin airports in 2005, well below totals in Frankfurt and Munich -- cities with a combined population half that of Berlin's. The project's supporters, including Germany's airlines, have argued that construction of a single hub airport is essential to boosting the profile and attractiveness of Berlin, which until last year did not even have direct transatlantic flights. The new airport will be the most important infrastructure project in east Germany and experts have said it could create 40,000 jobs in a region where one in five people is unemployed.> <But critics of the new airport abound. Some Berliners like the convenience of Tegel, just a 15 minute drive from the Brandenburg Gate, while others are loath to see Tempelhof, the airport where US planes landed during the 1948-49 Berlin airlift, shut. Some experts are also dubious about whether a new hub airport will attract more passengers through Berlin. "Berlin is an anomaly. It's the capital of the most populous country in the EU but it has few flights outside the bloc," said Dan Solon of airline consultancy Avmark International. "Still, I'm not sure there's a real case for a huge new airport."> --------------------------- The important point here is that Berlin with a total area of less than 1000 sq km (vs Goa's 3700 sq km) has been functioning with not one but THREE airports. Ok partly the numbers are due to politics (East Berlin/West Berlin etc). And the economy is of course much more developed than ours. But multi-airport systems are not unrealistic even if we reduce the relevant area in Goa to 2000 sq km (semicircle with a 70 km diameter, the distance between Dabolim and Mopa). This should put to rest the tired arguments about two airports being too many for a "tiny" state like Goa. There is nothing God-given about the dynamics of two airport systems. They have to be "managed" -- right from design to operation. That's all.
