Romanian Baneasa Airport needs another EUR 10 to 15 mln to become City Airport

The costs for the modernization of three further buildings at Baneasa Airport in Bucharest will be between EUR 10-15 million. The work is necessary to make the Baneasa site a functional city airport, the Director of Communications for National Airports Valentin Iordache told the local press.

He explained that the City Airport concept has already been started, and in December 2011 the C Wing of the terminal was reopened, after an investment of about EUR 2.4 million. "Currently, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies to transform the airport into a city airport are ongoing. And when we talk about a city airport, we don’t think only of private flights or VIP flights, but also business flights, on larger aircraft such as Airbus 320s,'' said Iordache. Regarding the modernization of the three buildings, it involves two distinct phases. The first step is strengthen the buildings, which is mandatory after the airport was declared to be seismic risk 1. Currently Baneasa operates light aircraft flights, flying schools and private flights. Also, Baneasa Airport hosts both rescue and ambulance flights (SMURD). On average, 30 -40 flights into or out of Baneasa Airport are recorded each day. Low cost flights were moved to the main Otopeni airport. He explained that the airport will offer high quality services such as Scroll short time departures flow and shorter arrivals time, business facilities, meeting rooms, restaurants and pubs, and the check in time will be shorter; just 15-20 minutes before the take-off. The more specialized services will be able to charge higher prices. Also the head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transport, Catalin Radu said any air operator, either low-cost or traditional, operating at Baneasa Airport will have access to these services. Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com