Gazipaşa Airport waiting for Godot’s plane

An airport in eastern Antalya that opened in July has everything it needs to serve passengers – except planes to carry them.

  Gazipaşa Airport and its 40 staff members are still waiting for the first commercial flight to land.

  Airport manager Cengiz Aşıklı told the Anatolia news agency that the airport has been available for domestic and international flights since July 13 with a C-II reference code that allows planes with a capacity of 150-160 passengers to land. Although the airport is technically suitable for such flights, airlines companies do not usually choose C-II airports, he said.

  As such, Aşıklı said the airport has looked to expand and obtain a C-III reference code, which would allow larger planes and would be preferred by more airlines.

  “We must expand the airport to update the airport’s reference code, but the main obstacle for that is the nationalization process in the land surrounding the airport,” he said, adding that if the land is nationalized by March, then the authority might start expansion work.

  Aşıklı said there is no need to expand the 1,825-meter runway for the time being. “The current runway is sufficient [for the] C-III reference code, which will allow Boeing 737-400 and Airbus A 319 planes to use the airport. Some airline firms have contacted us about the possibility of using the airport in May, but they are waiting for the result of the expansion works.”

  The ultimate goal is to expand the runway to 2,400 meters to serve long-haul planes, he said.

  It took almost 15 years to build Gazipaşa Airport and only three planes have landed there so far, including one belonging to the General Directorate of State Airports Authority, or DHMİ, one belonging to TAVHolding, the company that runs the airport and the third belonging to Beykent University.

  Gazipaşa Mayor Cemburak Özgenç said the airport and its employees have been ready every day for four months, but no planes have come yet.

  Özgenç said the nationalization of the lands had been finalized and was needed to establish an enhanced lighting system and some landing-control devices. 

Özgenç said the nationalization of the lands was a necessity to establish an enhanced lightning system and some landing-control devices. The nationalization processes for a 600-meter-long, 50-meter-wide land and an additional 200,000 square meters in front of the terminal building have been finalized, added the mayor.

  “We have made progress in nationalization, but we should nationalize an additional 700 to 200 square meter land to allow long-haul planes to use the airport,” said Özgenç. “Of course, the DHMİ must give the green light to continue with the expansion work. We are still waiting for the permission; I don’t know why it’s taking so long.”

  The highway between Gazipaşa and Alanya should go under the airport through a tunnel, which would cost approximately 2 million euros, the mayor said. “TAV Holding [the airport operator] will assume the cost of the tunnel and the nationalization of the lands. The company pledges to do everything necessary on behalf of the state and will pay 65 percent of the income it will receive to the state. I thus have no idea why the state is dragging its feet.”

  Özgenç said the future of Gazipaşa and the surrounding districts such as Alanya, Anamur and even Manavgat lies in the success of the Gazipaşa Airport.

“Once the airport is fully operational, the region will be a center of attraction,” adding that agriculture and real estate industries would benefit from the airport, in addition to tourism.

   15 years to build airport

  The airport’s construction started in 1992. The plan was to serve not only the residents of Gazipaşa but also the locals between Antalya’s Alanya district and Mersin’s Anamur district.

But it took almost a decade and a half to complete the construction of Gazipaşa Airport, which became infamous for its unfortunate destiny. The dilemma about its location, blocking the Taurus Mountains up the road and the wind that blazes Gazipaşa’s shores, generated dozens of newspaper stories, not about the benefits that this investment created but about criticism of officials for miscalculating the risks associated with its location.

In 2005, officials were planning to turn Gazipaşa Airport into an aviation training center, but that did not materialize either. At some stage, the locals used the airport territory to plant vegetables, as the massive investment was totally abandoned.

The airport could be operational only after a successful bidding process brought the highly reputable TAV, a joint venture between Tepe and Akfen that won the tender for the Gazipaşa Airport, to eastern Antalya for the next 25 years.