The new state-of-the-art Athens airport at Spata looks best placed - despite criticism of operating costs - to become the major hub for the eastern Mediterranean. But, practical considerations aside, all the contenders for the role - Athens, Istanbul, Beirut and Larnaca - are handicapped to some extent by the ghosts of past political and military conflicts in the region.
Up to the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, Beirut was the major international flight centre for the region, with abundant long-haul and short-haul connections. In the subsequent 15 years of conflict, the introduction of longer-range aircraft and the development of many new tourism destinations in the eastern Mediterranean changed the pattern of the region's air services. Today, with no obvious hub, only a handful of flights offer direct long-haul connections to the USA and elsewhere. The emergence of a new flight centre should encourage carriers - spurred by the prospect of higher passenger demand from within the region - to view long-haul services as more economically attractive.
Nowhere are reminders of the region's fragmentation more evident than in Cyprus, an island that might have been placed in the eastern Mediterranean specifically to play the role of hub. In the 1970s, an airport based in its capital, Nicosia, attracted services from around Europe and the Middle East. A new terminal building was inaugurated shortly before the Turkish invasion and occupation of the northern part of the island in 1974. When the fighting ended, Nicosia airport found itself where it remains - in the UN-controlled buffer zone separating the two sides. The airport building is silent, with the rotting hulk of a Cyprus Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident 2 still stranded outside a maintenance hangar. Weeds and grass have forced their way through the surfaces of the runways, and the windows of the old control tower flap in the breeze.
After the invasion, the Greek Cypriot authorities started to develop an airstrip at Larnaca to take commercial aircraft (while the Turkish Cypriots did the same at Ercan in the north of the island). But the Greek Cypriots were reluctant to admit that they had lost Nicosia airport for good, so the development of Larnaca was slow. "After 1974", says Cyprus Airways, "everyone waited, assuming there would be a solution and we could go back to Nicosia. Only now are we finally realising there is not going to be a quick solution."
Tourist traffic
Since 1974, two significant developments have affected Cyprus. Firstly tourism has boomed - to the extent that 3 million visitors come to the island each year. Secondly, Larnaca airport has consistently failed to adapt fast enough to cope with the huge increase in traffic. Today, the single-runway airport, with a chronically overcrowded terminal building and inadequate passenger handling facilities, copes with 5 million passengers annually. During the summer months, the airport is stretched far beyond its limits. "We accept our facilities are not ideal, especially at peak times," says civil aviation director Yiacovos Papadopolous in a teeth-clenched understatement. "They are not ideal as far as the passenger terminal is concerned."
More worrying in light of Larnaca's desire to become a regional hub is Papadopolous's admission that the airport, struggling to handle mass tourism, "is not suited at all for transit passengers". The Cypriot authorities say all this will change when Larnaca airport is privatised. Ten consortia (from Europe, Canada and South Africa) submitted pre-qualification bids, and five are to be asked to present detailed bids in the autumn - provided that Cyprus's parliament approves and the island's powerful unions accept the process, neither development being a foregone conclusion.
Missed opportunity
With uncertainty over the timing of the new airport (with 7.5 million passengers per year capacity) and no immediate plans for building a second runway, Larnaca has clearly missed its chance to be the main regional hub. It had a golden opportunity when Beirut airport was closed for long periods during the years of conflict in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 and passengers came by sea to Cyprus to fly further afield. "We could have been in a position to outperform Beirut," Cyprus Airways says. "Now they have a very nice airport and have got a step ahead of us."
But Beirut, too, is haunted by its past. True, the scars of war have been removed, and the ruins of the US marine barracks at the airport, destroyed by a suicide bomber with the deaths of 241 people in 1983, have been removed. The whole airport has been modernised and improved - with a new 3,400m (11,155ft) runway, and terminal facilities and apron capacity capable of handling 30 aircraft at any one time.
"When Beirut's airport was built in the early 1950s, it was one of the seven most important in the world," said former Prime Minister Selim Hoss last year when the new facilities opened. "We want to see Beirut regain its importance." But Lebanon's economic recovery has been far slower than most people predicted and Beirut has yet to re-emerge as the region's top business centre. And much has changed since the mid-1970s when the civil conflict began. For a start, the state-carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) - with a fleet of just nine aircraft - is a shadow of its former self and a major drain on the national economy. Difficult negotiations on cutting the 4,000-strong workforce have led to industrial action, adding to the airline's debt.
Last November, the new Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri announced a new open skies policy in the hope of attracting more airlines to Beirut - a move that was strongly criticised by both management and unions at MEA.
Some senior Lebanese officials clearly believe that it is unrealistic to expect the clock to be turned back. Transport minister Najib Meiqati said recently that while the airport's future was looking brighter (passenger traffic in the first quarter of this year rose to 548,000, compared to 492,000 in the same period last year), the open skies policy would not turn Beirut overnight into a hub for other airlines. "Most airlines these days have long-range planes that can cross many countries without the need for constant refuelling," he adds.
Capacity
Meiqati went says Beirut airport might be able to reach its 6 million passengers per year capacity over the next three years "if there was stability in the Middle East". As far as Beirut is concerned, that is the crux of the problem. The civil war is over, but the tension between Iranian-backed Hizbollah fighters and the Israeli army in the south of the country remains high. Syria still keeps 30,000 troops deployed in Lebanon. The Lebanon's security is still far from certain.
While this remains the case, Beirut is unlikely to be the first choice of airlines seeking a regional base. But if an Arab-Israeli peace deal were signed and direct flights resumed between Beirut and North American destinations, the picture could change dramatically.
Another problem Beirut faces ahead of any peace deal is that, unlike Larnaca or even Cairo, for political reasons it cannot offer transit passengers connections to Israel. Political factors of this kind impede all the contenders for the role of east Mediterranean hub. For example, there are no direct flights from Larnaca to destinations in Turkey, and Cyprus Airways aircraft cannot fly through Turkish airspace. Nor is there any direct contact between air traffic controllers in the Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR) air traffic control centre and the Ankara centre which watches over the neighbouring FIR zone to the north - with the Turkish authorities insisting that aircraft liaise with Ercan in northern Cyprus.
Recognition
Only Turkey recognises the northern Cyprus breakaway state, so all flights to Ercan must pass through Istanbul or another Turkish airport. On the other hand, passengers arriving at Istanbul from other corners of the globe do not have the option of taking a direct flight to Larnaca - a popular destination for passengers from Russia and the Balkan states.
Despite this restriction, Ataturk Airport at Istanbul sees itself as a strong competitor for the regional hub role, having recently opened a new international terminal, built by Tepe Akfen Vie on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis - with capacity for 14 million passengers (to be increased to 20 million in 2004). The old terminal is now dedicated to domestic flights with a 7.5 million per year capacity. Before the end of this year, the authorities say a third runway will come into operation, but because of its proximity to the parallel runway it will be useful only for back-up.
Ataturk Airport, situated close to the district of Istanbul on the European banks of the Bosphorous where the major commercial and tourist quarters are located, is in some ways a victim of its own success. So close is it to the city that the potential for expansion is severely limited. "Istanbul is already a kind of hub for this region. But in terms of physical structure we have some trouble. We have difficulty in increasing airside capacity, so expansion of our daily aircraft-handling capacity of around 36 aircraft an hour is limited," says chief manager Kemal Unlu.
Another curious sign of Ataturk Airport's success and a source of frustration for Istanbul authorities is the presence of a brand-new airport, Sabiha Gokcen, built on the Asian side of the Bosphorous - but operators seem reluctant to use it. "Passengers would pay 25% lower tax there," Unlu says, "but they don't have much traffic because it is situated too far away from the city's main attractions."
Flying in to visit the attractions each day is a growing number of tourists and business travellers from Turkey's ancient adversary, Greece - reflecting the current thaw in relations between the two countries. Greeks are coming to terms with the presence of a new European-style airport of their own to serve Athens (Eleftherios Venizelos at Spata, 40km (25 miles)) northeast of the city, which is as different as it possibly could be from its shambles of a predecessor (Hellinikon). In short, the new facility is sleek, modern and efficient. Athens International Airport (AIA) is owned by the Greek Government (55%) and a private international consortium led by Germany's Hochtief (45%) on a 30-year BOOT basis.
Room to breathe
The first obvious attraction of Spata is that there is room to breathe and expand. Its two parallel runways and (3,800m and 4,000m) are 1.5km apart to allow independent operation. "We are open 24h and have no slot restraints," says Georgios Karamanos, manager of marketing and business development. "In contrast to all the congested airspace in the region, aircraft can fly in here easily. The previous airport in Athens was hell, with transit waiting time between four and five hours."
The new authorities are also keen to bury the old airport's image of inefficiency and lax security. Chief aviation services officer Volker Wendefeuer says his staff "tried from the first day to achieve a high level of safety and security. We are one of the few airports in Europe with 100% baggage screening".
But security, like all other services at the airport, has been privatised - and comes at a price. Too high a price, say the airlines and operators at Spata. "When we moved here, the cost increase was tremendous," says Andreas Protopapas, Cyprus Airways manager and chairman of the Athens airport airlines/operators committee. "And we still are shocked. Sometimes we feel management is digging around to find new charges. We are in a fight between the operating committee and management - although we have good relations."
AIA admits that Athens is no longer among the cheapest airports in Europe, with the total cost to operators, according to a recent statement, "lower than that of the London, Manchester and Oslo airports, and more or less matching those of Vienna and Amsterdam". Other sources say that Athens' fees are the fourth highest in the EU. Karamanos acknowledges that "indications that the airport is expensive have come from everyone here, but it is unrealistic to compare the services offered here with Hellinikon".
The AIA management says it will review all charges at the end of the first year of operations, saying the ultimate test will be whether or not airlines and passengers go on using the airport in large numbers. If so, then there may be a margin to cut operating costs.
So far the indications are good. Only four months after start-up, Spata is handling around 600 movements a day from 56 airlines with more than 50 aircraft an hour. At present, the airport has a passenger handling capacity of 16 million, with adequate space for a second terminal and more satellite stands on the same scale as the existing ones, with a potential 50 million passenger throughput.
AIA, in a brazen display of self-confidence, has already dubbed itself "South-eastern Europe's New World Hub". But, aside from continuing cost grumbles from airlines and operators, two issues will have to be addressed before Athens can fully live up to its boast. Firstly, the future of the financially-crippled state carrier Olympic Airways will need to be secured.
"It is a major handicap," Karamanos says, "not having a strong hub carrier. On the other hand, having no dominant alliance here should be attractive for some airlines." Secondly, Athens will need to boost the effectiveness of its regional links by developing more widespread long-haul connections - especially to the USA and the Far East.
Management at the new airport hopes that these issues will be resolved before the Athens Olympic Games open in 2004 - giving it the chance to show the world that, unlike its regional hub competitors, Spata has laid to rest all the ghosts of the past.
Source: Flight International
