The Kasteli airport project, stalled for years, is finally taking off

"Despite local authorities having said that Crete could do with just an upgrade of the current 'Kazantzakis' airport," said Mitsotakis, "I have always been vertically in support of an entirely new airport facility," and added that if "one wants to look ahead beyond a mere decade, into the next 50 or 100 years, then one needs to build a new airport."

The prime minister underlined that the Kazantzakis airport is barely managing to serve 8 million passengers annually, "is noisy and burdens the Heraklion region with extra traffic," whereas the new airport will be "environmentally friendly (...) will feature cutting edge technologies (...) and will simply be the best airport in the country."

He then highlighted that the new airport will be realized by both the Greek state, "with its experience and power," and private contractors, "with their flexibility," in this case India's GMR Group, the 4th largest private airport developer in the world, responsible for some 100 million passengers annually, as it currently operates three international airports, including New Delhi. 

Mitsotakis also referred to the German airport operator Fraport, a company which has upgraded fourteen of Greece's airports, so the Kasteli airport project "comes in continuation of our collaboration with Fraport," he noted. The Greek state will hold a 46 pct of the shares capital, added the Greek Premier, with the exclusive shareholders being the Greek State, and Ariadne Airport Group as the concessionaire -  "in which the two aforementioned private entities have stepped in," he clarified. 

As far as covering initial investment costs is concerned, Mitsotakis said that the Greek state "will first put down 180 million euros and another 125 million euros down the line," together with the "160 million euros put down by the private shareholder." 

On the airport's projected profitability, he said "the Greek state alone will soon see a return of more than 1.2 billion euros,'' he emphasized, while in 35 years' time, "when the Greek state will be the sole owner, profits will exceed 2 billion euros," he weighed. 

"But we are not stopping here," he said, "as another 23 airports will come along, according to the government's planning," Mitsotakis revealed.