Gazipasa-Alanya Airport, Turkey

Gazipasa-Alanya Airport, which is a small airport situated on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, is located 4km north of Gazipasa, and 33km southwest of Alanya.

The airport was built around ten years ago, being completed in 1999 and has a capacity of around 500,000 passengers a year (the existing terminal building has a floor space of 2,144m² and a parking capacity for 105 vehicles). This would be fairly normal except that it was never opened and has never been used to operate any airline services at all.

The reason behind this is that the airport was built between the sea and a mountain with too short a runway (08/26).

This meant that it could not certified / licensed for use by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Authority), because of a danger of an aircraft colliding with the mountains when approaching from or taking off towards the interior of the country.

GAZIPASA-ALANYA AIRPORT REVIVAL

The airport was leased to the Turkish airport management company TAV (Tepe Akfen) Havalimanları Holdings in mid-2007 for a concessionary period of 25 years – TAV has developed a five-year plan to bring the airport around. This was because the airport was reassessed by a Turkish committee of experts appointed by the State Airports Operations Board of Directors who concluded that the airport could be used for international operations provided that the runway was extended.

A project is now underway to extend the runway and construct an international terminal building capable of serving three million passengers a year. The airport was scheduled to be opened by August 2008 but it is more likely that this will be 2009 by the time inspections have been made and licensing put through.

The airport will mostly accept charter flights from European vacation companies who have previously used Antalya International Airport, since Gazipasa-Alanya will be closer and more convenient cutting down on the current transfer time. Gazipasa-Alanya airport will only be about 40km (20 minutes) from the heart of Alanya as opposed to a two-hour drive to Antalya airport. The airport will be perfectly placed to serve Alanya, Kemer, Side and Manavgat.

The refurbished and improved facility is widely expected to have a positive effect on property prices in the area over the next two years as holiday homes will become more convenient. TAV is already in talks with EasyJet about operating from the airport and a UK / Irish based consortium has committed funds of €100m to develop a new five-star golf resort in the area (this will be completed in 2008).

AIRPORT OPERATIONS

Nine firms were interested in running the airport and had taken application forms but only four of these companies attended the bidding, including Meinl Airports International (eliminated because it had not submitted a bond), Gazipaşa Havacılık Co., Goldcity Aydoğan Turizm Co and TAV Airports Holding.

The auction phase was completed in eight rounds and TAV Holding won the right to manage the airport for 25 years.

The operating lease for the airport was finally signed in January 2008 for a leasehold of $50,000 a year and profits participation for the government of 65%.