Gibraltar’s airport ‘not good enough for Campo’ says Spanish trading association
The Spanish confederation of businesses says it has serious doubts if the Gibraltar airport has sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the future development of the Campo area.
The airport has limitations, derived from it being of military use and because of the physical presence of the frontier fence.
The organization’s director of international relations, Jose Maria Lacasa, says he would go for the construction of an airport in Spanish territory. The location of the Gibraltar airport reduces the possibilities of expansion.
He spoke of a British report about the possibility of the Campo area becoming ‘the Rotterdam of the south’. For this purpose, there is the need of an airport. But Gibraltar’s could never satisfy the expectations of flights that could develop in this area.
Although the airport may not be ideal for the reasons explained, Spanish businessmen in the Campo see Gibraltar forming part of the development of the south, he added. But warned that special circumstances as those prevailing in Gibraltar cannot last forever.
It will be recalled that there have been plans in the past four years to build an airport in the Campo but they have never materialised.
Latterly there was expectation that an airport could be sited in the Castellar area but this was firmly rejected recently which led to the investors who had planned to be involved there coming to Gibraltar instead, being given the opportunity to build the ‘affordable’ housing at Rosia Tanks and nearby.
Certainly the Gibraltar airport has obvious limitations. The question of safety has been highlighted recently, as the greater the traffic the greater the risks.
The whole area is also involved in political posturing with the separate Spanish claim to the land on which the airport is built.
From Panorama, Gibraltar’s Online Daily Newspaper
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