Faisalabad airport: Next meeting to finalise upgrade plans

Businesses propose public-private partnership for airport operations.

FAISALABAD:

Representatives of Faisalabad airport administration, district administration and businesses decided on Monday to come up with proposals for upgrade of the airport and discuss them in the next meeting in four days to finalise a course of action.

Commissioner Syed Tahir Hussain told the press after the meeting that an upgrade of the airport along the lines of Sialkot airport would cost about Rs1.2 billion. He said flights to several more international destinations would be started from the airport once the renovation was complete.

He said businesses had proposed setting up a company, with 51 per cent controlling shares with the Civil Aviation Authority and 49 per cent with the industrial and business community of the city, to operate the airport.

He said the airport manager had informed the meeting that currently there was only one departure and arrival lounge for both international and domestic operations. He said the airport hangar had space only for an Airbus or two Boeing-737s. The length of the runway, he said, was also inadequate for B-737 take off.

The meeting was attended by office-bearers of various traders’ bodies including Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, All-Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association, All-Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association, Faisalabad Development Trust, Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company and Anjuman-i-Tajiran and representatives of the Civil Aviation Authority and the airport administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2012.