No need to establish additional international airport

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KUWAIT CITY, July 30: The director-general of the Kuwait Municipality, Eng Ahmed Al-Manfouhi said the fourth structural plan of the State of Kuwait shows that there is no need to establish an additional international airport, and called on the concerned authorities to inform about the Municipal Council’s decision issued on Jan 10, 2022 allocating a site in the north of the country for the construction of a new airport. Eng Al-Manfouhi said in a letter all the information related to the construction of a new airport in the northern region in future, which ended with the approval of the Municipal Council, that according to the development and modernization of the third structural plan of the State of Kuwait 2005, the analysis of the previous policies of the airport indicated that there is need to establish a second international airport. However, it is considered far-sighted to continue providing capabilities for such an airport in the state’s master plan.

Location
He added that the location of the proposed airport site was determined within the second review of the structural plan in 1988 and in the third structural plan of the State of Kuwait in 1997. In 2005, another location for the airport was proposed in the north of Kuwait Bay, west of Subbiya and east of the Sabriya field. Al-Manfouhi explained that this site was originally proposed for the airport to be well connected with the new port on Boubyan Island, to facilitate import and export operations, as well as to provide facilities for ports, and to enable it to serve the northern half of the State of Kuwait with the least possible noise pollution and to create job opportunities.

The updating of the structural plan in 2005 confirmed the necessity of studying the proposal in more detail, especially with regard to the need for a second international airport within the State of Kuwait due to its relatively small size and the selection of the site itself.

Al-Manfouhi stressed that work is underway to adopt the fourth structural plan for the State of Kuwait, which indicates that there is no need to establish an additional airport, as the expansion of the current airport will be sufficient to serve passengers with a capacity of 50 million passengers per year, and as a result of this expansion, it will increase the air cargo traffic, and it will be linked to the terminal building directly with the railway line according to the metro plan areas such as Salmiya, Kuwait City, the airport building and the Sixth and Seventh Ring Roads. He revealed that, based on the decision of the Municipal Council, coordination is taking place with the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation regarding what was stated in the decision, and it is possible to take the necessary measures. However, the decision did not specify the areas and location

Decision
The Municipal Council’s decision, issued on January 10, 2022, regarding allocating a site in the north of the country for the construction of a new airport, did not specify any details about the exact location of the new airport’s construction, its area and the entity that will supervise it, or any additional information. It is noteworthy that the text of the Municipal Council’s decision was issued as follows: “Approval of the proposal submitted by the member, Ahmed Hadyan Al-Enezi, regarding the allocation of a site for the construction of a new airport in the northern region, because the proposal is in line with the studies and proposals of the fourth structural plan for the State of Kuwait.”

Al-Qabas learned that the municipality wrote to the DGCA on June 21, 2022, regarding the construction of the new airport in the northern region, and asked for information regarding the Municipal Council’s decision, so that the municipality could complete the necessary procedures according to the systems in place.

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