Ghost airport - Morava
Months after construction work on Morava Airport, in the central Serbian town of Kraljevo, was completed, the airport still hasn’t seen a single customer. Despite plans for Jat Airways to operate flights between Kraljevo and Istanbul during the summer, the service never came to light as the terminal building has still not been issued an operational license. Following the license grant, the airport has to obtain all necessary documentation from the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate, the police and customs. On September 3, the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić said, “The airport will be opened soon. There is interest from a local airline and a Turkish airline to operate flights from Kraljevo to Istanbul and other airports in Turkey. We will soon complete the job in the interest of Kraljevo’s citizens and we won’t open the airport seven or fifteen times so we can smile for the cameras”.
At the time, the Deputy Prime Minister admitted that Morava Airport won’t be able to finance itself. “The government is looking for the means to finance the airport over the next two years since its existence will strengthen the central and south western region of Serbia”, Mr. Vučić explained. Morava Airport lies between three larger cities, Kraljevo, Čačak and Kragujevac, and has a catchment area of some two million people.
The 32 million euro construction of Morava Airport began in 2011 with work on a new control tower and access roads. Later on in the year the first promotional flight was operated from Belgrade with Jat Airways’ ATR72. The airport is being shared with the Ladjevci military air base. The Turkish government has invested ten million euros into the project while the rest has been financed by the Serbian government.
Morava airport should remain as a symbol of the ideological failure of the DS regime. One thing is certain, thank God for the government change in May.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what airline showed interest in flying to Kraljevo! Can Morava handle anything bigger than a regional aircraft? I remember the authorities saying that it can't handle anything bigger.
the Deputy Prime Minister admitted that Morava Airport won’t be able to finance itself. “The government is looking for the means to finance the airport over the next two years since its existence will strengthen the central and south western region of Serbia”, Mr. Vučić explained.
ReplyDeleteNow we have another sourse of spending money for nothing!!!!
The 32 million euro construction of Morava Airport
If we have this money, and we don't why didn't we spend it for Nis Airport. It will be huge help!
Such a waste and the actual building looks great
ReplyDeletePEGASUS AIRLINES!!!
ReplyDeleteI WILL travel from Belgrade to fly Pegasus.
With good, professional and ambitious management I am sure Morava Airport can be successful story.
ReplyDeleteThe perfect airport for Ryanair! Why don't they do something?! A route or 2 to Scandinavia!
ReplyDeleteRyanair will propably advertise it as being in Belgrade!
ReplyDeleteI think that would be perfectly fine for many people. The question remains whether Kraljevo can handle 737-800...
DeleteReally?! Is the runway that small?
DeleteThe runway expansion is in the second phase of the project which is supposed to start when they open the terminal
DeleteINI is barely 130km while BEG is 190km...
DeleteBut isn't the terminal already open? This means a standard 737 cannot land at the airport?!
ReplyDeleteA very nice terminal with no passangers = the stupidest spending money in serbian history!
ReplyDeleteSolution: lease EMB 120 Brasilia like Croatia Airlines wanted. Connect BEG/KVO and INI, declare these routes as PSO routes and thats it. And other hours, use the plane for short distance routes (ZAG, SOF...)
ReplyDeleteVery smart solution for developing intra traffic with in Serbia, to have air connection among about six airport with aircraft up to 30 people capacity. This traffic can be extend to near airports in few country. Extenttion of runway and construction of new cargo terminal, LC, cargo, regular traffic easy can geave prosper life to AIRPORT MORAVA-KVO.
DeleteRodney Marinkovic,AME Kraljevo/Griffith.
It was a dumb idea I hear a lot about trying to attract pax from sandak in previous posts the issue there is one you won't have the same routes as pristina and 2 the people from sandak would rather spend money in kosovo then serbia as for cargo name the factories in the industrial areas that would import/export enough cargo to make it viable for its current size and operational expense all they needed to do there is build a small terminal incase they attract civilian aviation and a small cargo side for the any cargo traffic it will attract the investment was a lot more then it should have been
ReplyDeleteI jus hope we don't see more wasted money on novi sad and batajnica together I don't doubt a low cost airport is a good idea but u either choose cenaj or batejnica not both
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, total investment in Morava airport till now is not more than 5-7 mil.euros.
ReplyDeleteThanks to its geographic position, Morava airport will be one of the most frequent air destination to and from Serbia when runway being able to handle 737 and when professionel managment is to be established. It must happens at the beginning of next year.
Central and very accessible position between Nis and Belgrade, and close to Kragujevac, will give it a chance to be very often a major point for some international flights. It will be helped and pushed by FAS who has plans to export cars to all continents.
Region covered by Morava airport is already the most frequent turistic destination in Serbia, and airport will help it to be the same for foreign tourists. And so on.
So, don’t worry friends.
Yeah, but I am still wondering why they opened the terminal if the runway is small? Was it designed to handle snall aircraft only such as ATR? Maybe they want it to look like LCY airport...?!
ReplyDeleteSillily enough the plan was always for faze 2 of construction to be the runway extention after the first part of the apron, taiways, Tower and terminal ...
ReplyDeleteBEG is currently doing great and has the possibility to handle even more traffic and new routes - it will be difficult for it to "steal" routes. The only solution for this airport is getting it promoted to the low-cost airlines as a BEG alternative and they can call it "Belgrade South" :). It's a shame the large amount of money spent - and the building façade looks great!
ReplyDeleteWith runway expantion Wizz Air could have a go from KVO as whole region has a huge number of people working abroad .
ReplyDelete