Brasov-Gimbav International Airport will officially open on Thursday, and the first planes will fly to several European cities. How difficult was the construction of the airport? What directions and companies? What does the airport look like?
Brasov Airport is the first built in Romania in the last 50 years and the first in Eastern Europe where air traffic is controlled remotely through the Remote Tower system.
The total cost of the works at Brasov-Gimbav International Airport is 140 million euros.
The airport was officially opened to the public on June 10 and 11 with concerts and fireworks, and on June 15 the first flight of the Tarom plane will take place from Bucharest, piloted by Cătălin Prunariu, the son of cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu. Officials will arrive, there will be a ceremony with brass bands, speeches and a red carpet.
Photo source: Inquam Photos / Alex Nicodim
After this date, the airport will be operational, and the first regular flight will be on June 15 at 12:50 p.m. to Stuttgart (2 hours 10 minutes, operated by Dan Air).
The success of the airport will depend on several things. Will the companies get serious and not cancel a lot of flights? Will there be funding? Will it be possible to convince several well-known companies to hold races in Brasov?
To which destinations you can fly from Brasov
Little-known Romanian company Dan Air operates flights to Nuremberg, Munich, Barcelona, Brussels and Stuttgart. The company initially announced several routes, but some were canceled. There is a promotion on the company’s website, 5,000 tickets worth 49 euros.
Wizz Air announced flights Brasov – Luton (from August 2) and Brasov – Dortmund (from September 2).
The list of directions may change, new ones may appear, others may disappear. Since we are first talking about the airport, it is impossible to assess how events will develop further.
Photo source: Inquam Photos / Alex Nicodim
From June 15, there will also be a bus from the Brasov railway station to the airport every hour from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Line “A1” will be an express type with stops only at certain points important for the city’s mobility and will connect the station CFR – Civic Center – Livada Poštei – Bartolomeu with the airport terminal. The ticket costs 4 lei.
Long history of Brasov airport
The first proposals for the construction of an airport in Brasov were in the 90s, and a study conducted by some Danish specialists concluded that Brasov could not build an airport before the year 2000, because such an investment would not be justified from an economic point of view. point of view, you won’t find investors capable of doing that either.
Brasov also had a civil airport between 1955 and 1960 (at 13 December Street, but we are talking about a period when very few airplanes flew.
Brasov Airport has been much talked about in the last 20 years, work started in 2012 and the runway was completed six years ago, followed by other years of stagnation until spring 2020.
Photo source: Inquam Photos / Alex Nicodim
As Bună Ziua Brașov reports – in the history of the project, the airport site was inaugurated on April 15, 2008 in the presence of the then Minister of Transport Ludovic Orban from Brașov, at that time the plan was for it to be built and operated by the Canadian concern Intelcan. The project has stalled.
The project was resumed, but there were delays
The Brasov District Council decided to take care of the investment itself. In 2012, a contract for the construction of the runway was signed, and work on it was completed in October 2014. The length of the runway is 2,820 meters, the width is 45 meters.
In 2018, work was carried out on the arrangement of the taxiway and landing pad, in parallel with the expansion of the sewage and drainage network of the runway.
In August 2019, a contract for the design and construction of the passenger terminal was signed. The go-ahead was issued in March 2020, and construction was completed in 15 months.
This time it really worked
In 2021, intensive work on the infrastructure was carried out, and in April 2022, works were received at the terminal of the Brasov International Airport. In the fall of 2022, the installation of radio navigation equipment began, and at the end of the year calibration flights of this equipment took place. In May 2021, ROMATSA decided that flights at Brasov International Airport will be controlled and directed from the DSNAR Arad Control Center through the “virtual remote tower” – remote tower solution.
There are also plans for future expansion if the airport is a commercial success. According to CJ Braşov, if the threshold of one million passengers is reached in 2026, the construction of a second terminal will be required.
It will be implemented between 2027 and 2033, and the estimated investment cost will be more than 23 million euros. The financing of the works will be carried out in proportion to 92% of the revenues from the operation of the airport, the difference of 8% will come from other sources (subsidies, the state budget or European funds).
Source: Hot News
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