A third runway, due to open at Finland's main airport Helsinki-Vantaa in November 2002, will provide an immediate 40% increase in runway capacity. When the terminal and apron operations are moved to a new location between the runways, capacity could be doubled. Plans for a new international airport for Bangalore in India have moved forward with the selection of a consortium led by Siemens as preferred partner for a 74% stake. Siemens and partners Unique Zurich Airport and Indian construction and engineering firm Larsen & Toubro have begun formal negotiations. Airport construction is expected to be completed in 2004, allowing for a 2005 opening. A $6.3 billion, 10-15 year improvement of Chicago O'Hare International Airport will add one runway and reconfigure five others. Three of the existing seven runways would be relocated while others would be extended. In the end there would be eight runways, six of which would be parallel to each other. The remaining two would be a parallel pair, diagonal to the rest. The controversial proposal would nearly double the capacity of O'Hare, allowing the congested US airport to handle 1.6 million flights a year, at the same time slashing overall delays and bad weather delays by an estimated 79% and 95% respectively. The plan faces daunting political opposition from Illinois governor George Ryan who holds veto power, and has expressed support for construction of a new airport as an alternative to O'Hare expansion that would require the acquisition of nearly 450 acres of property, and removal of over 300 houses, 240 apartment units and 70 businesses. Ercan airport in the Turkish controlled northern part of Cyprus will be closed for much of September and October for a major overhaul and upgrading, including runway extension work and terminal refurbishment, enabling passenger handling capacity to be increased to two million per year. Meanwhile, flights in and out of the Turkish zone will operate from nearby Gecitakle.
Source: Flight International
