Wednesday, 16 November 2022
The opening date for the new terminal building at Ercan Airport has been postponed once again to early 2023, Yeniduzen reported.
Originally scheduled to open in 2016, construction has been ongoing for the last ten ten years.
A multitude of reasons have caused the delays over the years including problems in fulfilling the tender conditions, a dispute between the operator and the TRNC government, and delays by the government in discharging its contractual obligations.
Minister of Public Works and Transportation Erhan Arıklı, had stated that construction of the new terminal building had been completed and was expected to be opened on November 15, the anniversary of the founding of the TRNC, but they would wait for technical equipment to be brought to the country in order to fully open the airport.
Arıklı said that the state earns an average of 25-30 million Turkish Lira per month from Ercan. “It is a good income and investment. We have a very profitable business”, he said.
Ercan Airport Privatisation
On October 12, 2012, the Privatisation Board decided to privatise Ercan Airport and handed over Ercan Airport to Taş Yapı-Terminal Yapı and the junior partner Kanerler on January 1, 2013. Since then, nine Ministers of Transport and eight Prime Ministers have been in office during the construction of the new terminal. Statements have been made repeatedly that the new Ercan terminal will open at the end of the year.
The Ercan Airport contract, which was opened to civil air traffic on February 3, 1975 and transferred for 25 years, will expire on February 13, 2040.
The current transport minister Erhan Arıklı said that the new Ercan terminal “has a capacity for 10 million passengers and is the biggest investment of the TRNC at a cost of 300 million Euros“.
When asked by Yeniduzen: “Do you think the project that you say is the country’s biggest investment is too much for flights between TR-TRNC only?” Arıklı said the following: “It’s such a big airport, yes, it’s quite luxurious. The project was given to the contractor company, it was done. Maybe 10 years later, we can achieve direct flights“.