Aerotropolis Update, No. 3, May 2016

Aerotropolis Update

Aerotropolis Update No. 2, November 2015 No. 3, May 2016

By Rose Bridger

By Rose Bridger

CONTENTS Pages 1 - 4, INTRODUCTION Pages 5 - 11, AFRICA Angola - Luanda Airport, Egypt - Ras Sudr Airport, Nigeria - Ekiti, Makurdi, Morocco Benslimane Airport, Sierra Leone - Mamamah Airport, South Africa - Pietermaritzburg Airport, Port Elizabeth Airport, Scottburgh Airport, Uganda - Kabaale Parish airport, Zambia - Ndola Airport

Pages 11 - 23, ASIA Australia - Cairns Airport, China - new Sanya airport, India - Delhi Airport, Dholera Airport, Konni airport, Indonesia - Retail revenue, Juanda Airport, Kertajati Airport, Kazakhstan - New Almaty Airport, Nepal - Nijgadh Airport, Pakistan - New Islamabad Airport, South Korea - Second Jeju Airport, Turkey - Kas airport

Pages 23 - 30, EUROPE Belarus - China-Belarus Industrial Park, Hungary - Budapest Airport, Malta - Malta Airport, Russia - Domodedovo Aerotropolis, Sweden - Gรถteborg Landvetter Airport, UK - East Midlands Airport, Gatwick Airport

Pages 30 - 31, LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN Brazil - Brasilia Airport, Ecuador - Quito Airport

Pages 31 - 33, MIDDLE EAST Iran - Imam Khomeini Airport, Iraq - Diwaniya Airport, Saudi Arabia - King Abdulaziz Airport, Madinah Airport

Pages 33 - 34, NORTH AMERICA US - Baton Rouge Airport, Benton Airport, Merrill Field Airport, Palm Beach Airport, Southwest Florida Airport, Valley Airport, Watertown Airport

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INTRODUCTION What is an aerotropolis?

An aerotropolis, also known as an ‘airport city’ or ‘aerocity’, is an airport surrounded by commercial and/or industrial development. These airport-centric projects are not, primarily, settlements for people to live in. Some include substantial residential areas, but the emphasis is on facilities to spur growth of international trade and tourism. Air passengers are funnelled through hotels, shops, entertainment and cultural venues and offices on land around the airport. Manufacturing, industrial and assembly plants, along with distribution and logistics complexes, are integrated with the airport’s cargo facilities, enabling ever more dispersed global supply chains. Aerotropolis-style development on the land surrounding the airport is designed to be aviation dependent, prioritising and providing supporting infrastructure for facilities which, in utilising air services, will support airport growth. As the urgency of reducing climate damaging greenhouse gas emission becomes ever more evident aerotropolis projects threaten to engender a disastrous increase.

The aerotropolis is a distinctive urban form and a global phenomenon. The earliest prominent examples emerged around a few major airports, notably Schiphol, Munich and Frankfurt in Europe, Dallas/Fort Worth in the US and Changi in Singapore in the 1990s, followed by Seoul’s Incheon Airport and Kuala Lumpur Airport to the west of Malaysia’s capital. Over recent years aerotropolis style development has become a mainstream planning trend worldwide. Currently, important aerotropolis announcements, in particular by governments pertaining to land allocation and financing, are made on practically a daily basis. This Update looks at aerotropolis developments around 43 airports – operational, under construction and in the planning stages – in 29 countries in all the world’s regions.

From a few hectares to over 100 square kilometres The scale of aerotropolis projects varies widely. Small developments, typically adjoining a minor airport, may cover a few hectares. The largest aerotropolis sites are over 100 square kilometres.

The enormity of major aerotropolis projects can be grasped by comparison with the land taken up by the world’s busiest airport: Atlanta in the US, which handles more than 95 million passengers annually, and tonnes of cargo. Atlanta Airport, which includes substantial commercial development such as shopping malls and warehouses, covers a site of 1,518 hectares (just over 15 square kilometres).

Land areas allocated for major aerotropolis developments covered in this Update dwarf Atlanta Airport. The Egyptian government recently increased the land area for Ras Sudr airport, and airport city, to 3,226 hectares. In Indonesia, the West Java provincial government is paying for clearing 1,800 hectares of land for Kertajati airport and ‘aerocity’, and allocation of an additional 3,200 hectares has been proposed. In East Java, the land allocation for expansion of Juanda Airport and an airport city is 60 square kilometres. In Nepal, development of an airport at Nijgadh is planned as the first stage of an aerotropolis, on 80 square kilometres of predominantly forested land. China-Belarus Industrial Park, to the west of Minsk Airport, has been allocated a 95.5 square kilometre site.

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The total area of King Abdulaziz Airport, Saudi Arabia, is 115 square kilometres and the long term plan for Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport is a 140 square kilometre airport city.

Domodedovo Aerotropolis, around Russia’s busiest airport situated southeast of Moscow, could emerge as one of the world’s largest. More than 160 square kilometres of land have been reserved for the airport and aerotropolis.

The airport expansion element of some major aerotropolis schemes aims to increase passenger numbers to a level comparable with the world’s busiest airports. King Abdulaziz Airport intends to more increase its passenger throughput fivefold, from 16 million to 80 million and expansion of Imam Khomeini Airport aims to increase passenger numbers from the current 6.5 million to 90 million. Plans for Juanda Airport to become an airport city include two additional runways, taking annual passenger capacity to 70 million.

Examples of cargo oriented aerotropolis projects around existing airports include Benslimane Airport (Morocco), Budapest Airport (Hungary), East Midlands Airport (UK) and the ChinaBelarus Industrial Park. Plans for cargo focussed aerotropolis developments around new airports include Makurdi (Nigeria), Diwaniya, intended to become the largest cargo airport in Iraq and the new Ndola airport in Zambia, a cargo airport to serve mining. In Uganda, a masterplan for an airport in Hoima, the country’s oil hub has been completed. With a 3.1 kilometre runway, long enough to handle heavyweight cargo planes, it would form the first stage of a 29 square kilometre oil refinery, airport and industrial park.

Destruction of ecosystems and displacement of farming communities Aerotropolis developers seek out greenfield (undeveloped) sites. Inevitably this threatens the loss of vast areas of farmland, forests and other ecosystems. Two planned UK projects face considerable community opposition: a business park on open green space, including farmland, next to Gatwick Airport, and a warehousing and distribution hub adjoining East Midlands Airport that would endanger 243 hectares of farmland and woodland. Over half of the 95.5 square kilometre site of China-Belarus Industrial Park is forest. Offshore airport development, such as additional Juanda Airport runways and airport city, and China’s new Sanya airport in Hongtang Bay, would bring destruction of marine ecosystems though land reclamation.

This Update includes three instances of planned aerotropolis developments that are meeting resistance from rural communities facing displacement. Hundreds have participated in protests against a new airport, the starting point for an aerotropolis, on the South Korean island of Jeju, a project that was announced without consulting affected communities. In Ndola, Zambia, 2,000 farmers protested over government plans to relocate them for a new airport. Bulldozing of 40 square kilometres of farmland for an airport in the agrarian state of Ekiti, Nigeria, began without even warning farmers on the site. It is reported that ten of these farmers have died of shock.

Eviction of communities for the oil refinery and airport in Hoima, Uganda, began in 2012 and many affected people were left living in appalling conditions after not receiving their rightful compensation or resettlement.

Multi-lane highways and economic corridors The land-take for an aerotropolis is magnified by the requisite surface transportation network.

Multilane highways are standard. A four-lane road, to be expanded to six-lanes, is planned to link a new airport in Nijgadh, Nepal, with Kathmandu. Announcement of a second Jeju airport Page 2

was closely followed by plans for a high-speed rail or bus route linking the airport and ‘Air City’ with tourism and commercial centres including one of South Korea’s largest integrated resorts.

In many instances an aerotropolis in encompassed within, and integral to, an economic, logistics or transportation ‘corridor’: a network of transportation and industrial infrastructure designed to stimulate and re-shape the economy over a large area, often spanning national boundaries.

Dholera Airport is envisaged as a key node in a Dedicated Freight Corridor, which itself forms the ‘spine’ of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), promoted as the world’s largest megaproject. Both Sanya airport and the China-Belarus Industrial Park are part of China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ project. This network of land, sea and air corridors connecting China with Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe is one of the country’s most significant and far-reaching initiatives for determining the future configuration of global trade.

Non-aeronautical revenue supports airport growth The key to established major aerotropolis projects is that the airport owns the land upon which the airport-linked development takes place. Prominent examples include Frankfurt Airport with a 2,200 hectare site, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport with 73 square kilometres and Kuala Lumpur Airport with 100 square kilometres. All operate under a specific economic model: ‘nonaeronautical revenue’ from facilities on this land, operated by the airport and via concessions and leases, cross-subsidises airport operations (reducing landing and navigation fees for airlines to encourage them to use the airport) and expansion. The non-aeronautical revenue model strengthens the symbiotic relationship between expansion of the airport and growth of the development surrounding it. Stimulating economic activity in the host region is subordinate to the primary goal of maximising revenue generation from airport property.

Announcements regarding a number of emerging aerotropolis projects covered in this Update explicitly state that non-aeronautical revenue will be used to support airport growth: Cairns (Australia), Quito (Ecuador), Imam Khomeini International Airport (Iran), King Abdulaziz and Madinah (Saudi Arabia), Port Elizabeth (South Africa) and the planned new Ndola airport (Zambia). A shopping mall is anticipated to yield considerable lease rental payments for the operator of Delhi Airport, starting with a one-off payment of over US$37.5 million.

Destinations in their own right Developers of passenger-oriented aerotropolis projects aspire to create ‘destinations in their own right’, full-spectrum urban centres where passengers can shop, eat, stay in hotels, enjoy cultural and entertainment activities and conduct business meetings. Even relatively minor aerotropolis projects can offer a wide range of visitor attractions. For example, a 132 hectare scheme at Brasilia Airport will contain 280 shops, 30 fast food outlets, 5 hotels, cinema, gym, water park, convention centre, green space and a university. The ultimate form of all-inclusive tourism is emerging; air travellers’ interaction with the host community beyond the aerotropolis complex is minimised as they spend ever more time, and money, within a complex that is effectively an extension of the airport.

In addition to being strategically situated to capture revenue from the flow of passengers, aerotropolis development can be targeted at residents from surrounding areas. For example, a shopping mall, one of the largest in India, to be built on land leased by the operator of Delhi Airport, aims to attract residents from a wide catchment area. This is a model of development Page 3

that drains rather than boosts the economy of the wider region. Facilities within the aerotropolis act in competition with businesses beyond the boundary.

A new generation of special economic zones This Update includes several examples of aerotropolis projects that are linked with development of ‘special economic zones’, designated areas where firms are granted preferential treatment to reduce the costs of doing business, most notably tax breaks and provision of infrastructure including transportation, power and water supply. Special economic zones which facilitate international trade by lowering firms’ costs through exemption from customs duties are often called ‘free trade zones’. Traditionally situated near airports and shipping ports, the new generation of special economic zones that is emerging – part of, adjoining or linked to the aerotropolis complex – will be more closely integrated with the airport’s cargo facilities and surrounding logistics complexes and road/rail networks.

An ‘Innovation Special Economic Zone’ is being considered as part of the plans for Domodedovo Aerotropolis. There are plans to designate an ‘Airport City’ area around a proposed second Jeju airport as ‘special commercial zone’. In Angola, the new Luanda airport, currently under construction, is strategically placed near Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone which boasts of 550,000 hectares available to businesses. Plans for development of China-Belarus Industrial Park include various industrial zones and tax breaks are offered for a 20 year period from the commencement of investment.

A free trade zone is already established at Quito Airport. The second phase of the planned Diwaniya Airport is a free trade zone. A planned distribution complex next to East Midlands Airport would benefit from a proposed Free Trade Zone around the airport, offering tax breaks for businesses. The master plan for development of Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) includes a 2,500 hectare Special Economic Zone, which is also referred to as a ‘Free Trade Zone’.

Generous incentives for businesses locating in the zone include a 20 year tax exemption.

Economic enclaves Every aerotropolis proclaims itself a ‘growth engine’ that galvanises the economy of the host region, but small and medium-sized local enterprises are marginalised as development supports growth of major international corporations: airlines, aircraft manufacturers, construction firms, logistics firms, international tourism and hotel consortia and global retail chains selling global brands. More accurately, airport cities are economic enclaves; the relationship with the wider region, which provides land, surface transportation and other infrastructure and aviation subsidies (most notably tax exemption on fuel for international flights), is essentially parasitic.

The non-aeronautical revenue model and overlap with special economic zones each serve to bolster an airport city’s privileged status and segregation from the wider domestic economy.

Major aerotropolis schemes are among the largest, most expensive megaprojects being imposed by governments and corporations. Vast government expenditure can spark controversy and opposition. Examples in this Update are: Mamamah Airport in Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries still recovering from an outbreak of the Ebola virus, New Islamabad Airport which has been plagued by lengthy delays and cost escalation, and the recently halted Ekiti airport project in Nigeria.

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AFRICA Angola Luanda Airport – airport city plans and a total land area of 75.5 square kilometres In October 2015 Angola’s President, José Eduardo dos Santos, visited the construction site of the new Luanda airport, 40 kilometres southeast of the centre of the capital city. Works were scheduled to be complete by 2017, at an estimated cost on US$3.8 billion, on a 1,324 hectare site. The President was briefed on the project, including the aim to accommodate 15 million passengers per year and ‘Airport City’ plans. It has been reported that the airport will have a total area of 75.5 square kilometres, a scale that would make it a substantial aerotropolis.

Lunda-Bengo Special Economic Zone is described as ‘strategically located’ between the new Luanda airport and expanding settlements. The Zone has 8,500 hectares of land available to businesses. In addition, the Angolan government has set aside a large area of land for agricultural activities, adding up to a total of 550,000 hectares available to businesses.

Egypt Ras Sudr Airport – land area expanded by government The Egyptian government has approved establishment of an airport, and associated airport city and tourism projects, at Ras Sudr, a town on the Red Sea coast, and the Civil Aviation Ministry estimates the investment cost at US$127.7 million. Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister had stated that the government had provided the plots of land required for the new airport, then in early December 2015 he said that the government agreed to increase the land area to 7,681 feddans (3,226 hectares) to serve the airport’s operations and future expansion.

Morocco Benslimane Airport – greenfield land for aerotropolis An ambitious aerotropolis - an industrial, economic and commercial centre - is planned around Benslimane Airport, a predominantly cargo airport, near the Moroccan coast. A third runway is also under consideration. Benslimane Airport was selected for aerotropolis development because it has sufficient greenfield (undeveloped) land available. The project is anticipated to progress quickly. The Minister of Equipment, Transportation and Logistics announced that development work is scheduled to commence in 2016.

Nigeria Ekiti Airport – land clearing began without warning, 10 farmers died of shock As reported in GAAM Aerotropolis Update No. 2, the Ekiti state government began clearance of 4,000 hectares of farmland for an airport in October 2015, without even consulting residents of the five affected villages – Igbemo, Igbogun, Aso Ayegunle, Ijan and Araromi Obbo. An oil palm farmer whose plantation was bulldozed, Tijani Hakeem, died, reportedly of shock. In response to widespread opposition Ekiti Governor, Ayo Fayose, who had prioritised the airport project and insisted it must be fast-tracked, suspended work on the airport until December 2015, promising to pay affected farmers compensation and time to harvest their crops. Ironically, Page 5

farmland was being destroyed for an airport to export farm produce. The Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Kola Oluwawole, described the planned airport as “a cargo airport…to harness and ensure seamless exportation of agricultural produce”.

In December 2015 a group of affected farmers filed a suit, on behalf of farmers and landowners in the four affected communities, seeking damages for ‘unlawful and forcible acquisition’ of their land, destruction of farm buildings and removal of their crops. The legal action also sought an injunction barring officials from further removal of or damage to their crops and buildings, and for the revocation of their rights to the land to be declared ‘unconstitutional, illegal, null and void’.

Affected farmers held a protest on 20th January, storming the project site and demanding that work cease immediately, in respect of the suit that they had filed. They held placards with slogans reading: “Gov Fayose, Please Leave Us Alone, Don’t Damage Our Life,” “This Land Is The Major Cocoa Plantation, Please No Trespass,” “Please Relocate Your Airport to Government Forest,” “We All Say No To Illegal Airport Project,” “Iwajo, Aso Say No To Illegal Airport,” and “Igbogun Cries Over Illegal Destruction of Our Property.” Farmers claimed that government officials had entered their land and stolen produce including cocoa, yams and bananas, and that the stress of the destruction had caused the deaths of at least ten farmers, including three women, all of whom had ‘died of shock’.

Governor Fayose remained impervious to the rising chorus of criticism of his pet airport project.

In February he insisted that the airport plan was both timely and meeting people’s needs and pushed the project, vowing that the first plane would land on the tarmac by 2018. But on 22nd March the farmers secured a major court victory. Their suit was successful and all their claims – against Governor Fayose, the state Commissioner for Works, Commissioner for Lands and Housing, and Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice – were fully vindicated.

The high court in Ado-Ekiti ruled that forcible takeover of land for the airport project, revocation of their rights to their parcels of land, forcible entry into farmsteads, and destruction of crops, trees and buildings on this land, were all unconstitutional, illegal null and void. Justice Dele Omotso also ordered that over US$25,000 be paid to the farmers in damages and granted an injunction restraining the defendants from forcibly entering the farmland and from harassing or intimidating the claimants.

Makurdi – 1,000 hectares for cargo airport In central Nigeria, the Benue state government has signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with a private firm, Aerotropolis Development Company Ltd, for a cargo airport, in the state capital, Makurdi. The MoU stipulates that the state government will provide 1,000 hectares of land for the project.

Sierra Leone Mamamah Airport – will require relocation of 63 villages In 2011 China agreed, in principle, to part finance construction of a new airport in Mamamah, a small town on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city. The government said that US$190 million would be required for the project, which would be accompanied by infrastructure for an ‘airport city’ that would take four years to complete. In June 2014 the Page 6

Project Director of the new airport, Molai Buya Kamara, visited communities that would be affected by the project.

It was estimated that 63 villages would be relocated, and residents were concerned that their houses had been ‘earmarked for demolition’ in the absence of plans for their relocation and resettlement. Kamara issued assurances that he had come to engage with affected residents, that the airport would be advantageous for Mamamah communities and that land owning families had agreed to resettlement.

Sierra Leone was hit hard by the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa beginning in 2014, but the Ministry of Transport and Aviation claimed that construction of Mamamah Airport was on schedule, with the government and Chinese partners remaining fully committed to the project. A 1,950 square metre ‘Red Zone’ was allocated to the airport and associated facilities.

The Red Zone is within an 8 kilometre radius encompassing an Airport Development Zone (ADZ) that will be the epicentre of ‘aviation related service industry’ including conference and entertainment facilities, hotel and car parks. Three key areas for resettlement of relocated communities had been demarcated, just outside the ADZ perimeter, in which about 1,000 homes were to be built. Meterological equipment had been monitoring weather conditions on the site for several months and commencement of construction was reported to be imminent, with contractors mobilising equipment.

By the end of January 2015 construction had still not begun, and nor had construction of houses and amenities for resettling people, but again it was reported that land for their relocation had been demarcated. Minister of Transport and Aviation, Leonard Balogun Koroma, toured the site and stressed the commitment of the government, including President Koroma, to the project.

He said that “the airport is a strong foundation for the president’s agenda of constructing a new city”. Delays were ongoing. In July 2015 a sod turning ceremony was cancelled and an educational charity, Engineers for Change, reported that the only construction on the airport site was the meteorological station and that there had been ‘some challenging land tenure issues’.

A November 2015 article in the Sierra Leone Telegraph slammed Mamamah Airport, describing it as a ‘debt laden venture that will be most detrimental for Sierra Leoneans’ and urging the government to ‘increase and maintain investment in the people of Sierra Leone, rather than taking huge loans to construct a white elephant project’. Sierra Leone is one the world’s poorest countries, ranking 180th on the UN Human Development Index, out of 187 countries, 70 per cent people live below the poverty line. A luxurious airport project would plunge the country even deeper into debt.

In January 2016 Global Construction Review reported that ‘a chorus of criticism against the scheme has arisen inside and outside the country’, describing it as ‘the most controversial infrastructure project in its history’. A Sierra Leone Telegraph editorial urged the government to focus on health, education and provision of water and electricity and forget the ‘politically inspired, crackpot and wasteful idea of building a grandiose second international airport’. The cost would be 6.4 per cent of the country’s GDP and the IMF had argued against it, calling it a ‘vanity project’. A mere fraction of the funds allocated to the new Mamamah airport would be sufficient to modernise the existing Lungi and Hastings airports.

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There was uncertainty over China’s willingness to release the loan for the airport, but President Koroma and the Transport and Aviation minister continued to push the project. Minister of Transport and Aviation, Leonard Balogun Koroma stated that the project would “soon kickstart”. Negotiations between President Koroma and China’s President Xi Jinping were underway and China Railway International Group, awarded the construction contract in 2012, was awaiting approval to start construction works.

South Africa Pietermaritzburg Airport – development on ‘indigenous vegetation’ Expansion of Pietermaritzburg Airport is set to begin this year. Along with development on vacant land this is first phase of the Master Plan going forward to 2025. The development, including an industrial zone and commercial zones, hotel and sports facilities, will cover 20 hectares of ‘indigenous vegetation’, so an environmental impact assessment is required.

Port Elizabeth Airport – huge aerotropolis planned Mindful of declining passenger numbers and budget cuts (which could result in little or no government funding), Port Elizabeth Airport plans commercial and industrial development on its land to boost its non-aeronautical revenue. Immediate plans include an office block, vehicle showrooms, a six-hectare area for manufacturing and construction firms, distribution facilities and more retail outlets.

Lelo Kunene, commercial manager of airport owner and operator Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), said the long-term goal, over a 20-year period, is to turn the entire Nelson Mandela Bay area, which comprises the city of Port Elizabeth and surrounding towns and rural area, into a ‘huge aerotropolis’ and that the airport already owns land for development. Acting airport manager Greg Small said that the decline in passenger numbers showed that the airport can no longer depend on passengers for its “main income”. Airport-owned land around Port Elizabeth Airport is part of ACSA’s property portfolio. ACSA assistant property manager Zinhle Ntanzi said that ACSA intends to develop airport cities around all of its airports.

Scottburgh Airport – new airport with an ‘airport city’ A new airport has been proposed near Scottburgh, five times the size of the existing Durban Virginia Airport that it would replace, with an associated ‘airport city’ featuring hotels, offices and residential areas. The eThekwini Municipality, one of 11 districts of KwaZulu-Natal province, is involved in discussions with Seaworld Investment Holdings, a South African investment firm, over its US$461.8 million offer to develop the new airport and airport city.

Uganda Kabaale Parish Airport – a 3.1km runway to develop Uganda’s oil hub A masterplan for an oil refinery, airport and industrial park, on a 29 square kilometre site in Kabaale Parish, in the Hoima district, Uganda’s oil hub, has been completed. The complex could be categorised as an aerotropolis as the airport is evidently an integral component; it is considered a pre-requisite for oil development. Since commercially viable oil deposits were discovered in Uganda in 2006, in the Albertine Graben region around Lake Albert, on the border with DR Congo, the Hoima district has become the country’s oil hub.

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Communities have been driven off their land, often customarily-owned communal land, for oil infrastructure development. In August 2014 about 150 families living in Rwamatonga village were evicted for an oil waste treatment plant. Two people remained on the contested land and were burned to death. Three months later 70 families were thrown off their land in Rwengabi village, from a site located near three oil wells. Tens of thousands of people face the threat of displacement as government and companies move to acquire land for construction of oil pipelines. The Ugandan government is considering three pipeline route options for oil exports, passing through either Kenya or Tanzania to a port on the Indian Ocean.

In 2012 the Ministry of Energy announced construction of a key component of infrastructure for oil development, an oil refinery. A site was allocated in the Hoima district, in Kabaale village which is close to the shore of Lake Albert, and it was stated that the development, taking up 29 square kilometres of land, would also include an airstrip, shopping malls and flats. The size of the site is comparable with the world’s largest oil refinery, Jamnagar in Gujarat, India, which occupies a site of 30 square kilometres. Approximately 7,000 residents of Kabaale village have been evicted from their homes and productive land for the oil refinery. Affected people were offered either compensation or resettlement, but Environmental Justice Atlas describes the process as ‘marked by delays and broken promises’, with many residents reporting undervaluation of their homes and land, and compensation payments lower than the agreed rates. Residents not receiving their rightful payments were left living in ‘dire conditions’.

A 2014 report by the Africa Institute for Energy Governance documented two years of human rights abuses. People who asked for relocation or rejected inadequate compensation were left languishing in ‘ghost villages’, suffering food shortages with little or no access to clean water, schools, healthcare. At this stage only 52 per cent of the 7,118 affected people had been compensated for acquisition of their land. By April 2015 670 property owners were still awaiting compensation, and 42 of them were disputing the low rates that had been offered. In April 2015 93 families who opted for relocation rather than compensation were still waiting land that was promised to them. They remained stranded, in dire need of shelter, with no access to clean water as boreholes had broken down and acutely short of food because they were unable to grow crops. In October 2015 60 of the families demonstrated against the government’s failure to relocate them, three years after acquiring their land. They marched 50 kilometres to Hoima town, where they presented a petition demanding immediate action.

In May 2015 the Civic Aviation Authority (CAA) director of Airports and Aviation Security, John Kagoro, stated that 24 firms had expressed an interest in tendering for the contract to construct a fully-fledged airport, which he described as a pre-requisite for oil development, for bringing in personnel and equipment. On 2nd April 2016 it was announced that development of the master plan for an airport at Kabaale Parish was complete. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development said that 29 square kilometres of land was being acquired for the oil refinery, an airport and industrial park. The airport plans include a 3.1 kilometre runway. Comparable to major airports such as Gatwick, JFK or Sydney this is long enough for Antonov cargo planes to land on.

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The Russian-built Antonov An-124 is the world’s second largest aircraft, larger than an Airbus A390 and outsized only by the Antonov An-225. A cargo aircraft with a payload capacity of 150 tonnes, the Antonov An-124 is used extensively by the oil and gas industry to transport heavyweight industrial equipment. Constructing a runway over 3 kilometres long to handle Antonov An-124 cargo planes delivering equipment for an oil project is not unprecedented. The Komo Airfield in Papua New Guinea, with a 3.2 kilometre runway, was built specifically to serve the PNGLNG (liquid natural gas) project.

Zambia Ndola Airport – 2,000 farmers protest against relocation In May 2015 it was reported that the 20 square kilometre site for the planned new Ndola Airport is a former forest reserve that was recently de-gazetted by the government. The site is northwest of Ndola, Zambia’s third largest city, which is the gateway to the country’s copper mining region, known as the ‘copperbelt’. Typical aerotropolis-style commercial developments such as a hotel and housing units are planned, which would diversify the airport’s income stream, providing various sources of non-aeronautical revenue.

In December 2015 AVIC International was appointed to conduct a feasibility study, over a period of 21 days, in anticipation of commencement of construction works in March 2016. Joseph Mumbi, manager of Ndola’s existing Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport, said that about 700 families would be moved to make way for construction. He stated that people with legal documentation confirming land ownership would receive compensation before being evicted, warning that those without proper documentation would not be compensated. He urged people to exercise caution when considering acquiring land in the area as additional land will be required after construction of the new airport, for expansion purposes.

AVIC was awarded the US$397 million contract to construct the airport in January 2016, expecting it to be complete within three years. More than 2,000 farmers in the Dag Hammarskjöld area rejected the government’s plan to relocate them, to the Ngabwe district, to pave way for the airport. The farmers’ representative said they were disappointed that the government officials and councillors failed to consult them over the project, and shocked to see people on their land. He said that farmers had not begun their usual seasonal farming activities as they were ‘living in fear’.

Copperbelt Permanent Secretary, Reverend Howard Sikwela, apologised to the farmers, on behalf of the government, for trespassing on their land, denying accusations that they had been called illegal squatters. He offered the excuse that the people who trespassed on their farmland had been conducting feasibility studies to ascertain if the land is suitable for the airport, and that the government had not consulted them properly because the results were being awaited.

He denied that the farmers would be relocated to the Ngabwe district, saying that the government would never do something so “inhuman”.

The airport is anticipated to stimulate mining in the Copperbelt: President of the Mine Suppliers and Contractors Association, Augustine Mubanga, said that discussions were underway to look at how mining suppliers can best benefit from Ndola Airport and a US$492 million road project.

In March Sikwela stated that the government had identified land that would be offered to 2,097 Page 10

people for resettlement. This was one of the measures paving the way for construction of the airport, which will be a “regional cargo hub catering for mining activities in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)”. The aviation industry has received over US$1 billion from the government for infrastructure development between 2012 and 2019.

ASIA Australia Cairns Airport – loan guarantee could fast-track expansion for commercial development A 20 year, $1 billion programme to expand Cairns Airport could be fast tracked, if the Australian government provides a loan guarantee. The Federal Government has widened the scope of its $5 billion plan to spur growth in Northern Australia – renewing its drive to construct major resource and infrastructure projects. This could bring forward Cairns Airport’s expansion plans, which include commercial development along the Cook Highway (a major tourist road) and an ‘aviation enterprise precinct’ to the east of the runway. North Queensland Airports property development general manager Brett Rose said that the NAIF (Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility) policy framework could offer an alternative source of funding to accelerate both aeronautical and non-aeronautical development at the airport.

Part of Cairn’s Airport’s $1 billion expansion plan is for a new helipad, which could mean demolition of a boardwalk that enables walkers to view and study ecologically sensitive mangroves. The 700 metre Jack Barnes Bicentennial Mangrove Boardwalk, built 28 years ago, was laid down as a tribute to the medical researcher who discovered the Irukandji jellyfish, believed to be the world’s smallest venomous creature measuring just 2.5 centimetres in diameter. The boardwalk, earmarked as the site for the helipad, is a major tourist attraction but both Cairns Airport and Cairns Regional Council have refused to say what will happen to it.

China New Sanya airport – on a 28 square kilometre artificial island The city of Sanya, on the southern tip of the Hainan province, already has an airport, Sanya Phoenix International, which hit a record 16 million passengers in 2015. A new airport on an artificial island in Hongtang Bay is planned, along with an ‘aviation economic zone…seaport operation area, an international aviation CBD [Central Business District] and an industrial zone in support of the airport’. The new airport is part of China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ programme (a network of transportation corridors connecting China with Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe).

The new Sanya airport is projected to cover an area of 28 square kilometres. An offshore aerotropolis of this scale will require land reclamation on an enormous scale. It is even larger than the land reclamation for a new airport off the coast of the port city of Dalian, on the southernmost tip of China’s northeastern Liaoning province, which began in 2011, before official approval was granted. In 2014, as an offshore site was being considered for a new Sanya airport, due to lack of available land and the hilly terrain surrounding the city’s suburbs, it was stated Page 11

that the Dalian aviation hub would be the world’s largest on reclaimed land, covering an area of 20.9 square kilometres.

India Delhi Airport – a shopping mall on a scale not yet seen in India When Delhi Airport (Indira Gandhi International Airport), the busiest passenger airport in India, was privatised in 2006 the Airports Authority of India (AAI) allowed the operator of the airport, Delhi International Airport (Pvt) Ltd (DIAL), a joint venture led by GMR Infrastructure Ltd, to exploit 2,000 hectares of land and use the revenue from it to develop the airport. An 18 hectare commercial hub called ‘Aerocity’ near Terminal 3 hosts branches of several major hotel chains, including Pullman, Novotel, Holiday Inn, IBIS and Marriott. Completion of three office blocks in the Aerocity took the total available area of office space to about 90,000 square metres and fitouts for retail and food outlets are underway.

Five realty firms are in the running to build an enormous shopping mall adjacent to the Aerocity, spread over a 9.3 hectare site. The statement that the mall will be 18.5 hectares in size, twice the size of the site allocated, probably refers to actual retail floor space, which will be more than one storey in height. The research head of property at Jones Land Salle’s consultancy, Ashutosh Limaye, said that “India does not have the mall of this scale yet”. In fact the projected floor space is the same India’s largest shopping mall, the soon to be officially inaugurated six-storey Mall of India in Noida, an industrial suburb of Delhi. The mall will be ‘upmarket’, selling global premium brands and targeting a wealthy customer base.

The Delhi Airport mall is expected to be a major source of non-aeronautical revenue for the DIAL consortium; the lease is anticipated to yield a one-off payment of over US37.5 million and annual lease rental of over US$4.5 million. It will cater to residents of parts of Delhi and Gurgaon next to the airport, in addition to airport passengers. Limaye explained that “When one builds a mall of such as scale it usually becomes a destination for people from all over”. The project has set a precedent for use of AAI land for commercial purposes at other airports, marking a change from the established principle of use for aviation-related purposes.

Dholera Airport – an aerotropolis, key node of gigantic megaproject and defence hub In February 2015 the Gujarat State Government stated that the Indian Central Government had expressed support for a proposed Dholera Airport, which would be the state’s second international airport and an airport city. A 1,700 hectare site had been selected about 85 kilometres from the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city, and plans included a hotel, commercial development and industrial areas and an MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) facility. By June 1,426 hectares of land had been identified for the airport, envisaged as a key component of the 920 square kilometre Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR).

An article in the Hindustan Times details farmers’ fears of dispossession of their land for the DSIR, the site spanning 22 villages, and critiques the state government’s controversial ‘land pooling’ policy. Ostensibly, under land pooling landowners willingly give up their land to the government and benefit from the development upon it, receiving a portion of it once facilities such as roads are built and the value thus increased. But the state government can take half of

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farmers’ land without giving compensation, the other half of the land can be at a different site.

Activists claim that the proportion of land in Dholera that is fertile, and cultivated, is far higher than stated in the Environmental Impact Assessment. Crops include gram (chickpeas), wheat, cumin and, in the site for the airport, cotton.

Planners intend to make Dholera SIR a major hub for the defence industry, described by an article in Hindu Business Line as ‘an artillery and aerospace hub’. Plots of land measuring 8 square kilometres are being offered to global defence firms. Comments made by Jagadish Salgaonkar, Senior Vice-President of Aecom, the Los Angeles based company handling the project, make it clear that the government is treating defence firms extremely favourably. As the land is government-owned contiguous parcels can be handed over, and the city is pumping in funds for infrastructure so firms can start operations with ease.

Salgaonkar explains the type of companies that will benefit: “Our target market is maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) facilities for aircraft, defence contractors and heavy machinery manufactures, which require huge land for inventory management. Companies dealing with helicopters and aircraft can set up shops here.” The range of ‘defence’ manufacturing that planners aim to welcome to Dholera includes the most lethal military equipment - artillery, tanks, jeeps and big guns.

The ministry of civil aviation granted in principal approval for Dholera Airport in January 2016, stating that the greenfield airport would serve the logistics requirements of the DSIR. In addition to the 1,426 previously identified for the airport, allocation of 2,600 hectares of land for an ‘aviation zone’ was proposed. A September 2015 article in The Guardian provides a wider context to Dholera Airport and the SIR. Both are envisaged as key nodes in the planned Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) running 1,483 kilometres through six states. In turn, the DFC is nested within an even more gargantuan megaproject, forming the spine of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

DMIC is promoted as the world’s largest infrastructure project. A 1,500 kilometre high speed railway across six states is proposed, linking to a container port in Mumbai that will be the biggest in India. Other key components of DMIC include a six-lane highway, six airports, 23 manufacturing centres and 24 ‘smart cities’. Part of the DMIC vision is for Dholera to become an aerotropolis, a region driven by airport centric commercial activity, and approval of the airport has been recognised as helping drive forward the DMIC. Plan for airport in Konni A group of Indian citizens living outside the country has announced an ambitious plan for a new airport in Konni, Pathanamthitta. It would be the sixth international airport in the state of Kerala. One of the advocates of the project, Rajeev Joseph, said that the Kerala government should either give land for the airport, 405 hectares, or allow a newly formed company, Indo Heritage International Aeropolis Pvt Ltd, to buy and develop the airport and launch a low-cost airline service. Plans for an airport in Konni come in the wake of vigorous opposition, from local residents and politicians, to a similar project in Kerala, in Aranmula, on the grounds of land acquisition and violation of environmental laws.

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Indonesia Airport operator expands retail empire beyond airport land PT Angkasa Pura Retail is a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state-owned airport operator, PT Angkasa Pura 1. Established in October 2014 to boost the company’s non-aeronautical revenue, PT Angkasa Pura Retail exceeded expectations on 2015, reaching 43 per cent of total revenue. The bulk of PT Angkasa Pura Retail revenue is from food and beverage and an ambitious growth targets, to increase revenue tenfold in 2016, to US$14.1 million, is focussed on expansion in the fashion and lifestyle sectors. A total of 14 retail outlets are scheduled to open this year, including men’s fashion outlets at Sepinggan Airport in Balikpapan and a confectionery and chocolate shop at Adisucipto Airport in Yogyakarta.

Generating non-aeronautical revenue from retail, within airport terminals and on airport owned land, is standard practice for an airport operator. But PT Angkasa Pura 1 is taking its commercial property empire to a different level. In 2015 it opened its first store outside of an airport, a store called Our Flock, at Kuningan City shopping mall in South Jakarta and another off-airport store, in the old town area of Semarang, is to open in 2016.

Juanda Airport City - 60 square kilometres of land for an airport city In February 2015 the President of Indonesia, Joko Wikodo, approved development of Juanda Airport, near the northeast coast of East Java, into an airport city. Four thousand hectares of land is required for the project and a second and third runway are to be constructed. In January 2016, state-owned airport operator, Angkasa Pura I, stated that development of a third terminal and expansion will turn the airport into an ‘Integrated Airport Area’ containing business space and warehouse areas. This ‘airport city’ and ‘Ultimate Terminal’, with its ‘supporting infrastructure’, is conceived as the third phase of development, following the second and third runways, development of Terminal 1 and toll roads. The Governor of East Java requested that Angkasa Pura I resolve issues pertaining to planning and land use permission for expansion of the airport.

In April 2016 the East Java Governor Soekarwo stated plans to complete Juanda Airport expansion by 2019, increasing capacity to 70 million passengers annually. He explained that the two additional runways would require reclamation of 4 kilometres of land along the northern coastline and that the airport would be designed as an airport city. It was stated that 6,000 hectares of land had been prepared for expansion of Juanda Airport, 1,500 hectares for the two new runways and 4,500 hectares for the Airport City and Ultimate Terminal building. Soekarwo said a shopping concourse and recreational space would be built but refused to comment on the budget or investors which have agreed to fund the project. It has been reported that the airport city is one three Indonesian projects that UK investors are interested in, and that the East Java administration sent a delegation to Heathrow Airport to learn about airport city management.

Kertajati Airport and Aerocity – proposed land area increased to 50 square kilometres On 18th January 2016 it was announced that construction of Kertajati Airport, in the regency of Majalengka, West Java, will cost about US$267.4 million, to be paid by central government through the transport ministry. The financing decision was announced by President Joko Widodo during his visit to Majalengka. The West Java government is to pay for clearing the land, totalling an area of 1,800 hectares, 1,000 hectares of which have already been cleared. The Page 14

government had withdrawn its search for an investment partner for development of the airport, redirecting potential investors to the proposed aerocity surrounding it.

A few days later even more ambitious plans for the airport and aerotropolis were outlined, for it to become a ‘gateway’ to West Java, with capacity for 5.6 million passengers annually and construction scheduled for completion by 2017. In this announcement 1,800 hectares of land are allocated for the airport, and alongside it there will be a 3,200 hectare ‘Aerocity’, an ‘industrial area’ with direct access to the established industrial zone of Karawang, the capital of West Java, containing industrial and storage areas, offices, business and trade areas, housing and green space. This would take the total land area for the airport and aerotropolis to 50 square kilometres. Kertajati airport and Aerocity would be an economic centre for West Java.

The Kertajati aerotropolis is part of the Indonesian government’s massive aviation growth drive, setting a target to building 62 new airports over the next 15 years, in particular in isolated areas, bringing the country’s total number of airport to 299. Kertajati Airport has emerged as a highpriority, nationally significant project. In February 2016 Indonesia’s Transport Minister, Ignasius Jonan, said that the Ministry of Transportation was working for Kertajati Airport to be included in the 2017 state budget, as it is a “strategic” national project, and that a team is being established to transfer management of the project from the West Java provincial government to central government.

Kazakhstan New Almaty airport to be an aerotropolis In December 2015 Deputy Governor of Almaty, Serik Seydumanov, announced that construction of a new airport, 48 kilometres northeast of the city, would commence in 2016. Almost 2,000 hectares of land has been allocated for the airport. Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk Kazyna, has been designated as the principal Kazakh investor, and Seydumanov stated that an (unspecified) external investor will also be involved. This followed an announcement by the Deputy Governor of the Almaty region, Serik Turdaliev. Attending a tourism conference in November 2015 he stated that the total investment would be approximately US$8 billion, with the matter of land allocation being under consideration. Six months previously the Mayor of Almaty, Baurzhan Baibek, said that the new Almaty airport project will be an aerotropolis, a large complex with business centres, malls and theme parks.

Nepal Nijgadh Airport – an 80 square kilometre aerotropolis In 2011 it became evident that long standing plans for Nepal’s second international airport, at Nijgadh, 170 kilometres south of Kathmandu, were for an aerotropolis. A detailed feasibility study was commissioned and submitted, for a US$1 billion megaproject stretching over an area of 80 square kilometres, with 40 square kilometres allocated for the airport and 40 square kilometres for a ‘well-equipped airport city’. 2014 saw a series of government announcements emphasising commitment to the project. In March a 100% tax exemption was being considered, in order to make the project viable. In October the government allocated funds to fence off an 80 square kilometre site, mainly forested land, and a senior official, Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, stated that the government Page 15

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planned to acquire an additional 10 square kilometres of land for the project, which would enlarge the site to 90 square kilometres.

On 5th June 2015 the name and boundary of the airport (shown in the map on page 16, with a dotted denoting uncertainty over the exact position of the southern, western and eastern boundary) was published in the Nepal Gazette and the ministry state that ‘1,450 squatters’ would require relocation. A subsequent news article on 21st June stated that a larger number of people, 1,400 households, a total of 6,000 people, predominantly from the marginalised Tamang community, live in the project area and were expressing concerns over their resettlement and rehabilitation. The project had stalled and government finances allocated to it had not been spent.

As always, megaprojects spawn more megaprojects. A DPR (Detailed Project Report) for a 4-lane mega-highway between the airport and Kathmandu crossed by 7 bridges, expanding to 6 lanes, was completed in August 2015. Ostensibly, the rationale for the road is that the 1-hour travel time that it would enable is essential in order to make the airport feasible. A 2014 feasibility study had estimated the cost at US$960 million, but the escalated cost in the DPR, to US$1,117 million, was attributed to ‘added scope’ of the project.

January 2016 saw another high level push to commence construction of the airport, simultaneous with the highway linking it with Kathmandu. The International Relations and Labour Committee of the Legislature Parliament and the House panel instructed the government to proceed with construction of Nijgadh Airport. The House panel directed the government to prioritise the airport, separating it from the airport city project. It instructed the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) to begin land acquisition, site clearance and resettlement of affected people, directed the Ministry and Soil Conservation to fell trees and clear the site for the airport within two months and directed the MoCTCA to fasttrack environmental impact assessment for the airport.

But, in spite of scaling down the airport project, to a single runway facility, in its initial stages, the government proceeded with acquisition of the entire 80 square kilometre site, sufficient for a mega-airport and gigantic aerotropolis. In March it was reported that the task of collecting land details had been completed, that land valuation would commence shortly, and that public notices for land acquisition were to be issued by mid-April. Boundaries of the 80 square kilometre site had been identified and land had been categorised as under individual ownership, public land and ‘unidentified ownership’, the majority of land in the latter category. The government had allocated over US$9.37 million for land acquisition which was planned to be complete by the end of the fiscal year. A confirmed private investor still proved elusive, and the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Ananda Prasad Pokharel, tabled a proposal to utilise public resources in order to develop the airport.

Pakistan New Islamabad Airport – delays, dams and cost escalation The site allocated for the New Islamabad Airport, near Fateh Jeng, 20 kilometres from the centre of Islamabad, covers 13 square kilometres and plans include considerable commercial development - a hotel, convention centre, duty-free shops, air side mall, business centre, food court, leisure facilities and banks.

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Land acquisition for the airport began in 1984 and two decades later, in 2004, Pakistan’s then Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, inaugurated work on the project, without approval of a design.

Various government bodies approved the plans even though essential components – the fuel system, radar and radio control building, aprons, sewage treatment, electricity and water supply – were not even mentioned. Belated appointment of a design consultant was cited by an official as one of the reasons for prolonged delays and a steep cost escalation, along with lack of an access road, investigations and litigation, and ‘illegal’ occupation of land acquired for the airport. Construction of the wider road network to serve the airport, comprising new roads and widening of existing roads, has also raised design and cost concerns.

In August 2015 it was reported that the prolonged delay in construction of the ill-conceived airport project was costing the national exchequer more than US$19 million per day. Works began in 2007, scheduled for completion in 2010. The estimated projected cost of just under US$355 million had more than doubled, to US$777 million.

The case of New Islamabad Airport also flags up an overlooked resource implication and environmental impact of airport construction and operations – the vast volume of water that is required. The new airport’s water requirement is calculated at over 7.5 million litres per day upon commencement of operations, projected to rise to nearly 28.4 million litres per day by 2035. The site is in a dry area, with no underground water. Initially the Punjab government had agreed to supply water to the airport, from the Shahpur Dam, but construction delays led to allocation of this water for agricultural and residential needs, and because of concerns that the scheme would be unworkable due to technical issues.

Several schemes for rainwater reservoirs were explored. In August 2015 the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) informed the Senate that two dams, Ramma and Kasana, will be constructed to supply water to the airport, through rainwater harvesting, costing US$16.2 million. By this stage, the projected cost of the airport had escalated further, possibly as high as US$964 million. By February 2016 the cost of the airport had exceeded US$964 million and an audit criticised the CAA for failing to manage the megaproject properly.

A March 2016 editorial in the Express Tribune newspaper ridiculed the new airport project as ‘a series of barking-made failures at every level’. Even the prospect of opening in 2020, a full decade after the originally scheduled 2010 completion date appeared unrealistic. There was uncertainty over whether the project was 60 per cent or 85 per cent complete and there was none of the requisite supporting infrastructure: no water or electricity supply and no road link to Islamabad. A CAA report to the Public Accounts Committee revealed a serious design flaw: the two runways have been built too close together to meet international standards, so cannot be used simultaneously.

South Korea Second Jeju Airport – five villages resist the island’s largest megaproject The island of Jeju, 100 kilometres off the southern coast of South Korea, with a dramatic volcanic landscape featuring black sand beaches, waterfalls and lava caves, is already a major tourist attraction. In November 2015 the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation announced a plan for a second Jeju airport that would enable a dramatic increase in the number Page 18

of tourists, a US$3.5 billion project to be built by 2025. Initially with one runway the new airport would have the capacity to accommodate 25 million passengers annually, but the site could be expanded to accommodate an even higher number of passengers, adding a second runway 20 or 30 years in the future.

Won Hee-ryong, governor of Jeju, said the airport, would be “the largest project in the island’s history”, a “growth engine on the eastern part of the island”. The province also plans an ‘Air City’ complex around the airport with facilities including shopping malls and convention and financial centres. An article in Jeju Weekly stated that the province intends to designate the new airport area as a ‘special commercial zone’. There is an industrial complex near the existing airport which offers tax benefits and other incentives to IT and bio-tech firms.

Announcement of the airport came as a huge shock for residents of the island. They were not consulted or involved in the decision-making process and there has been little consideration of the impact on rural communities that have thrived for many generations. Most of the site, 70 per cent, is a farming area, close to Honinji Pond, a sacred site where, according to legend, farming began on the island. Residents worried that they would be forced to relocate with a low level of compensation that would be insufficient to build a new life.

One of many protests against a second Jeju airport – residents dressed as the three founding fathers of the island (photo: pagansweare.com)

The new airport would jeopardise the pristine natural environment that is key to the area’s popularity as a tourist destination. The project could mean aircraft flying low over Sunrise Peak, a 182 metre high cone rising from the sea with a large, green crater on the island's eastern edge that is UNESCO protected and a particularly iconic visitor attraction. The area earmarked for the Page 19

airport has unique ecological and geological features, include 18 subterranean lava tunnels. In contrast, various mega tourism projects would be supported by construction of the second airport, including the Jungmun Tourist Complex, Jeju Myths and History Theme Park and an integrated resort.

From a provincial government announcement in November it appeared as if the airport had been granted the go-ahead. Banners proclaiming ‘Second Airport Plans Confirmed’ were displaced in Jeju City. But representatives of communities opposing the airport said the project was not finalised; it had yet to receive the required validation from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the National Assembly. By late December banners opposing the airport extended 20 kilometres along roads leading to the five affected villages – Onpyeong, Sinsan, Susan 1, Nansan and Goseon – where people face displacement and disruption of their lives from aircraft noise if the project goes ahead.

Demonstrations against the airport have involved hundreds of people, bringing together young, old and students. Protests have drawn on shamanic traditions, including dressing as the three founding fathers of the island. Resistance is pitted against a considerable weight of pro-airport propaganda. Advertisements extend further than the affected villages and is highly visible in Jeju City. Reaction to the airport plan is presented by the media as a split of opinion, but the majority of locals, who stand to be most affected, are opposed to it.

Farmers protest outside a provincial government building (photo: pagansweare.com)

Unity in resistance against the new airport was still evident in five affected villages in January.

Red and yellow protest flags with slogans such as “Gieonara!” (Get out!) and “Second Airport Out! Oppose! Stop!” adorned buildings and cars. Protesters challenged the flouting of Page 20

democratic process, blocking the entrance to a briefing meeting, demanding a full public debate and that the full study upon which the site for the airport was selected be made public.

Campaign leaders spoke of their concern that the destruction caused by the airport would be compounded by urban sprawl from the ‘AirCity’ and vowed to continue their fight for the future of their communities.In February, in the face of continued resistance against the second airport, a consortium supported by the provincial government called for a high-speed transportation network of high speed rail and buses linking Jeju Island’s main commercial and tourism centres.

The scheme raises severe environmental concerns, including the impacts of construction activity and road building. Scope for consulting affected communities will be limited if, as envisaged, design plans are finalised within a matter of weeks. The proposed route is tourism oriented consisting of four key nodes. Jeju City would be linked with upcoming tourist hotspots: Seogwipo, Jeju Myths and History Theme Park (one of South Korea’s largest integrated resorts, scheduled to open in 2017) and the second airport. A map of the proposed high-speed route indicates plans for an aerotropolis around the second airport site, where the only words written in English appear: ‘Air City’.

Banners against a second Jeju airport spread 20km along a road through affected villages (photo: pagansweare.com)

There could be parallels with the long standing resistance to another destructive megaproject on the Jeju coast. Construction of Gangjeong Naval Base, on the southern coast of the island, has met with a sustained non-violent struggle because of the destruction of the delicate marine ecosystem and the strategic purpose of supporting US defence interests. Protesters have stalled the project many times, physically blocking bulldozers and delivery of construction equipment.

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Some anticipate an even greater protest movement if construction of the planned second Jeju airport goes ahead.

Turkey Kaş airport plan – threats to heritage, farming and natural environment A proposal for an airport near the town of Kaş has raised serious concerns over threats to the region’s heritage, agriculture and natural environment. Kaş is a popular tourism destination on the mountainous southernmost shore of Turkey, known as the ‘Turquoise Coast’ and one of least developed areas of the Mediterranean. The rugged coastline has beautiful bays, coves and beaches. Outdoor activities include kayaking, paragliding, mountain-biking and trekkers flock to the area as it is situated along the 509 kilometre Lycian Way. The proposed airport site is a few kilometres inland from Kaş in the Çomucak-Pınarbaşı-Çukurbağ-Ağullu area. It is thought that the proposed land area to be allocated for the airport is about 20 square kilometres. This is almost twice the 11.7 square kilometre area of Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, the busiest airport in Turkey, handling over 61 million passengers in 2015.

If the airport project goes ahead there will be negative impacts on historical and archeological sites, including Phellos, the largest ancient city in the area, on the outskirts of Kaş. Forested areas would be destroyed and the area is rich in native plants such as the endangered Lycian orchid. Fertile land that is cultivated, with agricultural plots, livestock grazing and beehives, would be lost, along with farming livelihoods. Parts of Pınarbaşı village are in the expropriation area, so people may face displacement. There are also concerns that residents of the Ağullu, Belenli, Çukurbağ, and Yeniköy neighbourhoods would be forced to relocate. Noise pollution from aircraft flying overhead would ruin the tranquillity of the villages. The Greek island of Kastellorizo is close to the coast so building the airport would require permission from Greece.

Kaş has a population of just 8,000 people and mass tourism would damage unique natural, cultural and historical assets. Major and international firms would take trade away from local tourism-based businesses. Campaigners warned that an airport in Kaş would lead to the area meeting the same fate as the coastal resort towns of Marmaris and Side, also on the Mediterranean coast, and Kuşadası on the western Aegean coast, their distinctiveness deteriorating due to large-scale tourism developments.

A consortium of eight companies, DETUYAB, has applied to the Ministry of Transport and Communications to build the airport on the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model. DETUYAB is already heavily involved with mass tourism projects in the area. The consortium is developing a 115 hectare tourism zone in the coastal town of Demre, about 47 kilometres east of Kaş, including restaurants, villas, hotels with a total of 7,500 beds and a 700 berth marina. Demre has sandy beaches and, like Kaş, is surrounded by historic sites, cultivated land and important wildlife habitats.

Opposition to the airport plan is gathering momentum. A group of local organisations – including Kaş Tourism Association, Kaş Kalkan Patara Hoteliers Association, Kaş Underwater Association and Kaş Environment Platform – has submitted a seven-page report to local state bodies opposing construction of the airport, detailing the damage that would be caused to

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nature, communities and the local economy. By the time this Update was published an online petition, We don’t want an airport in Kaş, had attracted over 25,000 signatures.

EUROPE Belarus China-Belarus Industrial Park – an entire new city on a 95.5 square kilometre site In 2010 the governments of China and Belarus reached a consensus on a plan to build a binational industrial park near the Belarusian capital city, Minsk, an arrangement that was formalised in September 2011 with the inking of the intergovernmental agreement. The project took a major step forward in May 2013. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko allocated an area 40 per cent larger than Manhattan around Minsk Airport, situated 42 kilometres east of the capital, for an entire new city to be built by China. The announcement included housing for 155,000 people but the main purpose of the US$5 billion project is to function as a springboard for manufacturing and trade, acting as a staging post between the European Union and Russia.

The joint venture is 60 per cent owned by China National Machinery Industry Corp and 40 per cent by the Belarus government. China’s ambassador to Belarus, Gong Jianwei, said that the industrial park will dwarf anything similar elsewhere in Europe. The first stage of the joint venture is scheduled to be completed by 2020 with the second stage a decade later. The site is strategically situated near the M1 highway running between Moscow and Berlin and a high speed rail link is planned to link Minsk Airport to the city centre.

China which agreed to finance the development with low-interest loans conditional on half the money being spent on Chinese materials. Upon completion the plan is for the hub, within 274 kilometres of EU members Poland and Lithuania, to serve as a manufacturing base for Chinese exporters and also to provide easy access for tax-free entry into Russia and Kazakhstan. As well as accessing high-value markets Chinese manufacturing firms will be able to take advantage of a lower manufacturing costs; the average wage of just US$560 per month is half of the average wage of Polish workers.

Generous tax breaks are offered to firms to encourage them to invest in the industrial park, and companies worldwide as well as from China are eligible. Companies specialising in ‘advanced’ sectors such as electronics and biomedicine and committed to investing at least US$5 million are to be granted a 10 year exemption from profit and property taxes, with a 50 per cent reduction in these taxes for a further 10 years.

In July 2013, it was reported that two environmental groups, Green Network and Eco House, had appealed to the Minsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office demanding checks on the legality of the industrial park project. A vague article stated that the groups claimed that the project was approved in spite of ‘flaws’ and called for checks on whether the layout conformed with regulations and regarding the accuracy of an official report. The article also stated that

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environmental groups had called for an alternative site for the park, which would endanger the landscape and biodiversity, and increase air pollution. Freedom of speech and the press is extremely restricted by the repressive Belarusian government, inevitably muting any criticism of such an enormous, strategically significant megaproject.

Construction of the industrial park began in 2014 and by July 2015 seven companies had registered as residents and 350 hectares of the ‘territory’ was being developed. The project is called ‘Great Stone’ and the strategic significance to both Belarus and China was becoming ever more evident. In December 2015 President Lukashenka said the industrial park is Belarus’s most important joint venture and it is the largest overseas industrial park that China is involved with.

Furthermore, the industrial park is a key component of China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ programme (a network of transportation corridors connecting China with Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe). Terms of generous tax breaks, over a 20 year period from the commencement of investment, were reiterated. General Manager of the industrial park, Li Hiaxin, said “The extent of the favourable tax policies is rarely seen in the world”.

The full site is colossal: covering 95.5 square kilometres, 50 per cent of which is forest. Phase one, covering 8.5 square kilometres, is scheduled for development over a 7 year period.

Construction of the entire industrial park is anticipated to take 25 years. Although not, to my knowledge, referred to as an aerotropolis the industrial park bears the hallmarks of this model of development. A project map shows the industrial park area, divided into several zones, to the west of Minsk Airport. A promotional video shows grids of grey rectangular buildings covering most of the greenfield site, clusters bordered by green space and areas of forest are preserved.

Eight functional industrial zones include aviation logistics at the northern end of the runway.

Along with the various industrial zones, a fuller spectrum of urban facilities is planned: hotels, exhibition and conference centres, golf courses, luxury residential areas, entertainment and a recreation zone. An area of ‘territory’ is reserved for unspecified future development.

Government investment in major and rapid expansion of Minsk Airport is sure to support the industrial park. A gap between the airport runway and the land earmarked for the industrial park is ideally situated for additional airport capacity and this part of the megaproject jigsaw has now falling into place. In February the aviation department of the Transport Ministry announced that construction of a second runway at Minsk Airport, which will commence in October, one of the 2016 investment programmes approved by President Lukashenka. The second runway will be 3.7 kilometres in length, due to open in 2018, and the project cost is estimated at US$320 million. The government envisages allocating in excess of US$200 million for the runway and participation of foreign investors will be sought. A new international terminal is also planned.

Hungary Budapest Airport – airport hotel and cargo city In 2014 Budapest Airport management met with Saudi investors to discuss plans for a €20 million airport hotel and a Cargo City project. The latter has expanded into a broader Airport City project and the airport has signed an MOU with the Regional Economic Development Cluster to accelerate investment in economic activity at the airport. A total of US$38 million has been committed to expansion of the airport but a significantly higher amount would be required for the Cargo City and Airport City projects.

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Malta Malta Airport – impact assessment of business hub not publicly available In December 2015 Malta Airport announced terminal expansion and construction of a second ‘Skyparks’ tower – a business hub. This raised several concerns. Traffic congestion is already a problem in the area and would increase, and the development will necessitate extension of the ring road. The project will involve expropriation of ‘patches of farmland. The impact assessments had not been made available to the public, leaving people in the dark over the operational requirements such as parking spaces. Two studies upon which the project was based were withheld due to ‘commercial sensitivity’.

Carmel Cacopardo, an architect and civil engineer appointed by the local council to assess the environmental impact statement, questioned the necessity of the development and its location.

The periphery of the airport is only the ‘breadth of a road’ from the Gudja business community, which was concerned over a large supermarket that had appeared in the masterplan. The supermarket was no longer mentioned but appeared to be visible in the artist’s impression of what the development would look like. Cacopardo highlighted the airport business hub, as well as a racing car track along with various ancillary facilities, as among many damaging developments on the island which ‘will have considerable impact on surrounding villages’, affecting local residents and nature.

Russia Domodedovo Airport – plan for largest aerotropolis in Europe Russia’s first aerotropolis is planned around Domodedovo Airport, Moscow’s main airport situated 42 kilometres southeast of the city. Clustered development is planned around the airport, including ‘hotels, exhibition and conference halls, offices, storage and logistics facilities, industrial sites, residential areas, parks, shopping malls, factory outlets and car parking facilities’. A logistics and distribution zone is being considered, and an ‘Innovation Special Economic Zone’ with clusters of technology parks. Other proposals include a ‘health port’ for medical tourism, and ‘education port’ and facilities for aviation and logistics training.

Domodedovo’s senior vice president for non-aeronautical development, Daniel Burkard, outlined plans for “a series of interlinked commercial and industrial facilities at a distance of up to 25 kilometres from the airport”. The total area allocated to Domodedovo Airport is 16,000 hectares; 9,000 hectares are for aviation infrastructure, leaving 7,000 hectares for developing an aerotropolis. Burkard said that Domodedovo Airport has more land available for development than any other airport in Europe, and explained that urbanisation near an airport helps an airport to grow, as demonstrated by Frankfurt, Schiphol and Heathrow airports. Aerotropolis facilities already constructed over the past few years include a flight catering factory and a fourstar, 350-room hotel.

Sweden Göteborg Landvetter Airport (Gothenburg) – aerotropolis to support airport growth Swedavia, a state-owned firm operating ten of Sweden’s airports, has unveiled plans for an airport city at Göteborg Landvetter Airport, which is 18 kilometres to the west of Gothenburg Page 26

and surrounded by undeveloped land. The airport city will cover more than 490 acres (198 hectares) of land. The plan is for typical aerotropolis components including a logistics park, business district and a hotel and retail area. Karl Wistrand, Chief Executive of Swedavia Real Estate, property developers for land surrounding airports operated by Swedavia, said that development around the airport will support growth of airport operations.

UK East Midlands Airport – planned freight hub would destroy prime farmland In January UK transport minister Robert Goodwill MP approved plans for a major freight hub to the north of East Midlands Airport (the busiest cargo-focussed airport in the UK, handling volumes second only to Heathrow). The plan for the ‘East Midlands Gateway Rail Interchange’, constitutes 557,000 square metres of distribution and storage facilities on a 100 hectare greenfield site. The developer is Roxhill and the masterplan on the website shows the warehouse buildings, rail interchange, storage and vehicle parking areas to the north of the airport runway, surrounding by trees and landscape screen bunding, reducing the visual impact.

In total, about 243 hectares of farmland and wildlife habitat, including woodlands, would be destroyed. An intermodal freight terminal – connected to rail networks and the trunk road system – aims to accommodate sixteen 775 metre long trains per day. The project is called a strategic rail freight interchange (SRFI) but this may be a misnomer. Proposed warehouses will not be directly linked to the rail network, a matter which the examination authority took issue with. Instead, it is envisaged that freight will be transported between the terminal and warehouses on road-based tractors. Road improvements including widening of the M1 motorway form part of the plans.

Potential lack of rail connectivity for the site, which might consign it to function as a road-based operation, was one of the main reasons why an examining panel of planning inspectors recommended that government approval for the SRFI project should be refused. But the conclusions of the panel were rejected by the government. The issue that a rail connection to the freight hub may never materialise, leaving it as a road freight yard with the associated noise and air pollution from vehicles, is also a key concern of the J24 Action Group. Formed by local residents and the parish council, the name of this group derives from the Junction 24 of the M1 motorway, located to the north of the freight hub site. J24 Action Group has a Facebook page – Say No To SRFI in DE74 - J24 Action Group.

J24 Action Group has campaigned against the SRFI on the grounds of lack of a rail link and several other important issues. The site is entirely green space and prime farmland and valuable plant and animal habitats will be destroyed. Ten warehouses, each between 18 and 25 metres in height, are planned and continuous – 24 hours a day seven days a week – operations, will increase levels of noise, air and light pollution for residents in the surrounding area. There are also concerns that development will increase the risk of flooding in neighbouring villages and that the proposed flood mitigation measures have not proven effective. A Roxhill document, ‘Summary of the East Midlands Gateway Proposals’, shows new road infrastructure and associated landscaping extending eastwards and northwards, including widening of the M1 motorway and a bypass connecting the M1 with the A6 road, running though farmland south of the village of Kegworth.

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In response to government approval of the freight hub, Toni Harrison, a member of J24 Action Group and chair of the local Parish Council, said that the area is already overdeveloped, and the new development is unnecessary as there is a lot of empty warehouse space at Castle Donington, immediately to the east of the site. She said the new of approval of the project was “devastating” but that the opposition campaign will not give up, and is considering applying for a judicial review.

Priorities outlined in proposals for restructuring of regional government would provide both financial and transportation benefits to the SRFI. A proposal for a Free Trade Zone, the first in the UK, around East Midlands Airport, offering tax breaks for businesses, is top of the list of pledges that negotiators for devolution of powers to a new ‘combined authority’ have requested from government. Second on the list of pledges that negotiators have asked for is that construction of the nearest section of the planned HS2 (second high speed rail network), through Derbyshire, be brought forward from 3032 to 2027. The SRFI project appears to be a high priority for the UK government, as it has proposed routing HS2 through the site.

Gatwick Airport – lively campaign against ‘Airport City’ on open green space Residents and businesses in Horley, a town in a rural setting to the north of Gatwick Airport, were shocked when the local authority, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, announced plans to purchase 69 hectares of land for a business park, agreeing to use its powers of compulsory purchase. Local people had not even been consulted about the plans. On the last page of a 9-page agenda item ‘Development of land to south of Horley: Proposal to enter into a Joint Venture’, submitted to the Council Executive, the proposal is referred to as ‘Airport City Gatwick’.

Conservative Party Councillor Natalie Bramhall claimed that information about the business park could not have been made public because it was “commercially confidential”, but claimed to have received offers from international businesses wanting to move onto the site. A business park would take up green space that forms a buffer between the town and the airport, removing its open setting and imposing development that would mean a continuous area of urban sprawl. Residents also expressed concerns that the business park would increase pressure for development on greenbelt land neighbouring the site and increase traffic on roads that are already congested. Substantial areas of new housing, roads, and services such as schools and hospitals would be required for a development of the scale that is envisaged. Public open land and agricultural land would be lost and two equestrian facilities and sporting facilities forced to close.

The Keep Horley Green campaign was established to coordinate opposition to the business park, rapidly gaining a following on Facebook and Twitter. The group pointed out the area earmarked for ‘Airport City Gatwick’ is a flood plain, inundated with water every year. Covering a vast area with impermeable concrete would leave communities downstream of the site at increased risk of flooding.

The site duly flooded in January 2016, following heavy rains that left many areas of the UK in undated with water. A Keep Horley Green video, posted on YouTube, is a graphic illustration that excess water has to go somewhere and of the absurdity of the plans to build on the floodplain. Local campaigner Joanna Barnett stands in water that is over 60 centimetres deep Page 28

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and rows a boat over part of the site where the water was even deeper. Ducks were swimming on the newly formed lake.

Keep Horley Green was also outraged to discover that the Council proposes to spend US$780,000 of public money to prepare the land for developers. The video of the flooded site helped to garner support for a petition against the business park plans. By 15th January the number of signatures had reached 4,000. Brendon Sewill, chair of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), a group that has sustained opposition to expansion of Gatwick Airport since 1968, slammed the plans as threatening to turn the area into “an amorphous mess of offices, factories and traffic lights”.

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN Brazil Brasilia Airport – plans for Brazil’s first airport city Inframerica, a private airport operator and major investor in Brazil’s airport privatisation programme, is to invest US$907 million in major expansion of Brasilia Airport, an ambitious plan for ‘the first airport city in the country’. There are six key components: a 9,000 square metre expansion of the international department lounge, a new terminal, office park, Sun Park City Center complex, five new hotels with a total of 1,600 rooms, and a large storage facility.

The new terminal ‘Terminal JK’ is envisaged as a substantial commercial complex – spanning 303,000 square metres with 280 shops, 30 fast food outlets, eight restaurants, two hotels, cinema, gym and a car park with 4,000 spaces. This is comparable with Heathrow Terminal 5, which covers 300,000 square metres and hosts 100 shops and restaurants).

The five hotels will extend the footprint of major global hotel chains: Wyndham, Hard Rock, Ibis and Etap. The Sun Park City Center, a 418 square metre building next to the new airport terminal – featuring a water park, aquarium, facilities for children, cinema, green space, shops, an arena, convention centre, hospital and university – sounds like a mini-aerotropolis, a destination in its own right. The total area allocated for all the components of the airport city, 132 hectares, is small by global standards.

Ecuador Quito Airport – commercial revenue from a 1,500 hectare site The new Quito airport, situated 18 kilometres to the east of Ecuador’s capital city, on the Tababela plateau, opened in February 2013. The airport aims to increase commercial revenue across its 1,500 hectare site, from aeronautical and non-aeronautical activities. A US$17 million 150 room hotel (part of the Wyndham chain, the world’s largest hotel group) is being built and other developments are being considered, such as MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) facilities for Airbus and Boeing. A Special Economic Zone has been established on a 200 hectare site to the east of the airfield. After opening the airport access roads were incomplete, but a government funded highway to northern Quito improved access and opening of a six-lane ‘Ruta Page 30

Viva’ highway to downtown Quito, funded by the Andean Development Corporation Development Bank of Latin America, halved the journey time to 45 minutes.

MIDDLE EAST Iran Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) – a 140 square kilometre aerotropolis Plans for an airport city around Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA), which opened in 2004 and is located 35 kilometres south of Tehran, were approved by a cabinet meeting in June 2014. The construction contract was valued at US$2.5 billion and Deputy Head of Iranian Minister of Road and Urban Development, Mohammad Ali Nourian, said talks had been held with foreign countries and a Chinese firm and that the project would begin in the near future, paving the way for private investors.

Opportunities for investors would be presented in the form of 25 ‘technical towns’ focussed on a range of activities including ‘health, education, tourism, media, entertainment, trade, environment, high tech, exhibition and export’. The scale of the planned airport city, 140 square kilometres, rivals Dubai South, a 145 square kilometre aerotropolis being constructed around Dubai’s new airport, Al Maktoum.

In March 2015 the Iranian government established the IKIA Airport City Company to manage the project and supervise investment. The master plan reveals that the aerotropolis will cover a 137 square kilometre area around the airport, containing a 2,500 hectare ‘Special Economic Zone’ (SEZ), also referred to as a ‘Free Trade Zone’. Incentives to attract businesses to the SEZ are generous, in particular a 20 year tax exemption. Objectives for the airport city include ‘creating sustainable sources of income to improve aeronautical, cargo and passenger operations’ and ‘evolving IKIA into a multimodal passenger and cargo hub’. A full 60 per cent of the airport’s revenue is expected to be ‘non-aeronautical revenue’ – from non-aviation commercial and industrial and activities on airport owned land.

Expansion of the airport, in four phases, is to run in parallel with development of the airport city, aiming for a dramatic increase in annual passenger capacity from the current 6.5 million to 90 million. Finances are to be raised by leasing plots of land to private investors, but a substantial injection of state financial support has already been allocated to the project – US$300 million as initial capital. It is therefore evident that a symbiotic relationship between growth of the airport and the aerotropolis surrounding it is envisaged.

In December 2015 the contract for Phase 1 construction of the aerotropolis, this time referred to as ‘IKIA Airport Town’ and including two new passenger terminals and part of the free trade zone, was awarded to Netherlands Airport Consultant Company (NACO). Construction is scheduled to take place over a five year period.

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Iraq Diwaniya Airport – plan for largest cargo airport in Iraq and an aerotropolis In February 2015 the US$1.35 billion contract to build and operate a proposed Diwaniya Airport and aerotropolis, in the Diwaniya province in southern Iraq, was awarded to a Kuwait contractor, Al Nasriyah Al Kuwaitiah Company. The project is in three phases. The first is building the airport, for which an area of 1,750 hectares has been allocated, to be focussed on cargo operations and the largest air cargo facility in Iraq. The second phase is establishing a free trade zone.

The third phase is building what CEO of Al Nasiryah, Sheikha Eman Nasser Sabah Al-Nasser AlSabah, described as a full service aerotropolis, on an additional 1,750 hectares of land – comprising an entertainment district, exposition centre, public plaza, shopping centre, hospital, medical centre, sports complex, university campus, research and technology park, industrial parks, and just-in-time manufacturing facilities. There will also be space for industrial parks, a research and technology park, just-in-time manufacturing facilities, and mixed-use commercial and residential housing.

Sheikha Eman said that the airport and aerotropolis “will become the engine that drives the socio-economic development of Southern and Central Iraq for several decades” and represents “a remarkable milestone in the establishment of closer economic ties between Kuwait and Iraq”. A remarkably fast-paced schedule was announced: for the airport to be fully operational by early 2017 and the entire project complete within five years.

Saudi Arabia King Abdulaziz Airport (Jeddah) – plans for a 115 square kilometre aerotropolis A US$11.3 billion expansion of King Abdulaziz Airport, 19 kilometres north of Jeddah, aims to increase passenger capacity from 16 million annually to 80 million by 2035, and expand cargo capacity from 1.5 million tonnes per year to 3 million tonnes, making it one of the world’s largest airports. It is planned that, upon completion, the airport will cover a total area of 115 square kilometres, including a 6.5 square kilometre airport city with housing, restaurants, hotels, retail and other facilities. The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has appointed Netherlands Airport Consultant Company (NACO) to develop masterplans for 13 of Saudi Arabia’s airports, including examining methods to increase non-aeronautical revenue from development of airport commercial areas.

In October 2015 it was announced that authorities would soon begin distributing compensation for approximately 1,000 plots of land that had been confiscated for the new airport, in the form of new plots of land of a size similar to that taken for the airport. An official said that a district with 1,000 plots of land, with utilities in place, had been developed for this purpose.

Madinah Airport – a model for privatisation and non-aeronautical revenue Madinah Airport (also called Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz Airport) is to the west of the capital city of the Madinah region, on the west of the country, alongside the Red Sea coast.

Phase one of the airport’s US$1.2 billion three-phase expansion programme opened in July 2015 – a three-level 156,000 square metre terminal with capacity for 8 million passengers per year.

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Phase two expansion is set to accommodate 19 million passengers per annum, rising to a number in excess of 40 million upon completion of phase three. Construction of accommodation for 100,000 residents is also planned.

President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Sulaiman Al-Hamdan said that, as Saudi Arabia’s first privatised airport project, Madinah Airport could serve as a model for privatisation of airports in other regions, and that privatisation comes hand in hand with airports developing alternative, non-aeronautical revenue streams. Al Hamdam also said that expansion of Madinah Airport is integral to the government’s economic diversification strategy, aiming to move the country away from dependence on oil revenues. Non-aeronautical revenue from airport-linked developments would indeed diversify Saudi’s economy and reduce the country’s reliance on income from oil exports. But the airport centric development threatens to lock in fossil fuel intensive infrastructure decades into the future; increasing consumption of oil and perpetuating dependence upon it.

NORTH AMERICA US Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (Louisiana) – ‘raw land’ available Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport owns 600 acres (243 hectares) of ‘raw land’ at its Aviation Business Park that is available to tenants in tracts of various sizes. The business park is already the airport’s fourth largest source of revenue, generating between US$2 million and US$3 million annually.

Benton Airport (Illinois) – development on ‘grassy, untouched land’ In September 2015 Benton Airport broke ground on a Business Park, on 37 acres (15 hectares) of ‘grassy, untouched land’, enthusing that the project was moving quickly after nearly a decade of efforts to commence development on the site. The Benton-West City Economic Development Corporation had overseen the plans for the business park and received a US$115,000 grant for a new road to go through it.

Merrill Field Airport (Anchorage, Alaska) – office buildings on green space Merrill Field Airport wants to develop green space which is airport owned, public use land, across the street from one of its runways. Some community members are concerned that the proposed office buildings pose a threat to a park (which the airport has suggested moving to an alternative site). They are also worried the development would mean loss of character of the neighbourhood, due to a significant increase in intensity of land use, and negative impact on wetlands.

Palm Beach Airport – rental income from hotel, store, car wash, gas station, fuel Palm Beach Airport seeks a developer to build a 150 room hotel on a 10 acre site, which would provide a new source of revenue for the airport. Already, a ‘prime piece of airport-owned land’ Page 33

has been leased for a travel plaza, scheduled to open in 2016, with a convenience store, gas station, car wash and Dunkin’ Donuts outlet. In addition to rental income the airport received half a cent from each gallon of fuel sold at the gas station.

Southwest Florida Airport – incentives for shopping centre and other development The ‘Skyplex’ branding for development on 870 acres (352 hectares) of land on the north side of Southwest Florida Airport was announced about a decade ago, but to date there has been just one property lease, a small area of 3.75 acres (1.5 hectares) for a shopping centre. Efforts by the airport owner, Lee County Port Authority, to encourage development on the full area of land have included provision of water and sewage services and incentives for non-aviation development.

Valley Airport (Harlingen, Texas) – shovel ready site for aerotropolis In 2014, Mayor of the City of Harlingen, Chris Boswell, outlined plans for Harlingen Aerotropolis, an airport-centric industrial, commercial and residential development. In April 2015 nearly 480 acres (194 hectares) of land, was designated as a certified site for the Aerotropolis, meaning that it is a project ready industrial site, with all entitlements in place, so is ‘shovel ready’ for development.

In January 2016 the airport’s director of aviation, Marv Easterly, said the land was ‘site ready’ with all utilities – electricity, telecoms, water and sewage – in place and that building permits would be approved quickly. He declined to reveal which businesses had contacted the airport about locating in the aerotropolis, but said commercial aerospace firms would be suitable, and emphasised Valley Airport’s established lease arrangements with Boeing and Lockheed Martin and production of Atlas V, Delta II and Delta IV rockets – which have both military and space applications. A map on a site selection website shows the Harlingen Aerotropolis site to the east of the runway and operational buildings. A promotional video shows the shovel ready site, all vegetation removed. Major corporations already on site include DHL and FedEx. Watertown Airport – public funds on studies and trees being cleared In December 2015 it was reported that Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency (JCIDA), in New York, has spent US$500 million on preliminary studies for a business park at Watertown Airport and is soon to begin clearing trees on 26 acres of land. JCIDO claims that the bat population on the site will not be threatened. The longer term project encompasses 100 acres owned by the JCIDA, which wants to purchase additional land, to have approximately 200 acres for the business park. JCIDA received considerable public funds for planning the business park: US$125,000 from the National Grid’s Shovel Ready Infrastructure program, which it aims to match with grants from the North Country Regional Economic Development Council.

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About GAAM Launched in March 2015 the Global Anti-Aerotropolis Movement (GAAM) aims to: •

Research aerotropolis developments worldwide

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Raise awareness of aerotropolis developments and foster public debate

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Support local struggles against aerotropolis projects

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Build an international campaign community

GAAM co-founders are: AirportWatch, U.K. AirportWatch Europe Pastoralists Indigenous NGO's (PINGO’S Forum), Tanzania Third World Network (TWN) Tourism Advocacy & Action Forum (TAAF) Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (tim-team), Thailand Rose Bridger, author of the book ‘Plane Truth’

Please share this update to help raise awareness of aerotropolis developments.

GAAM website – GAAM Twitter @AntiAeroGAAM – GAAM Facebook – GAAM YouTube

The aerotropolis maps in this document were produced for GAAM by InTouch GIS Services using publicly available information.

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