The controversy surrounding the opening of the new airport began this week with declarations by the managing associate of the Hotel Venta Club Boavista, who justified the layoff of 150 employees with the high cost of transporting tourists between Sal and Boa Vista on charter flights and blamed the inoperationality of the Boa Vista International Airport for the difficulties. The issue was then touched upon by MpD legislator José Luís Santos, who demanded that the government present a definitive date for the opening of the new airport.

Mário Paixão affirmed that construction work on the new airport had already been concluded and that equipment was currently being installed. According to Paixão, the airport is also undergoing tests and preparing for certification.

“In March, an aircraft from the ASECNA [ the Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar] will travel to the island for the calibration and final tests of the Precision Approach Path Indicator system installed on the airport’s 03 and 21 runways. We’re waiting for this check and the installation and calibration of the control tower equipment from a European supplier to put the finishing touches on all of the technical documentation necessary to request its certification. This will be carried out by the Civil Aviation Agency, with the aid of a New Zealand-based agency, the same one that supported the certification process of the new Praia airport.”

Controversy with the Venta Club

Mário Paixão affirms that the government and ASA are determined to open the new Boa Vista international airport as soon as possible. ASA’s administrative council president added that since the project was conceived two years ago, a number of difficulties have been overcome, particularly those resulting from the abandonment of Italian business group Viaggi del Ventaglio (which also owns the Hotel Venta Club Boavista) of the joint venture it held with ASA. “The pullout by the Italian company, which is now calling for the urgent opening of the airport while it fires 180 workers from its enterprise with the excuse that the airport isn’t operational yet, when the opening is only months away, is, at the very least, very strange,” says a source, who also questioned why the company built the hotel when the airport was still nothing more than a promise. “There’s something very strange about the Italian investor’s attitude,” concluded our source. What’s more, according to Mário Paixão, the pullout of Viaggi del Ventaglio resulted in the need to carry out a financial re-engineering of the airport project, forcing ASA to take on the responsibility for all of its costs.

Source A Semana