‘Gozo Deserves More Respect’: MEP Alfred Sant Says Gozitan Airport Project ‘Can’t Be Commercially Viable’
Labour MEP Alfred Sant has openly criticised the proposed plans for an airport in Gozo, saying it cannot possibly be financially viable and that the sister island deserves better protection.
Announced last year, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri had revealed plans to extend Gozo’s helipad facility to handle a small-winged aircraft that can carry up to 11 passengers at a time.
“It surprises me how the plan for an airport in Gozo has received the support of so many Gozitan businesses,” Sant said on social media earlier today.
“In no way can I see how such a plan, whether it has a regular program or not, to carry passengers between Gozo and Malta and back, can ever be commercially viable,” he lamented.
“The proposal that this is feasible is much less believed than the one that was false from the beginning, the one of the fast ferry, where two companies competing between Malta and Gozo were expected to make profits,” he said.
“But the fact that such a project will definitely fail (if it is ever even launched) is being ignored by everyone.”
“In the meantime, more land from the Gozitan countryside will be eaten up and destroyed so that after the collapse of the project, a residential block and a commercial block will be erected in its place, and around them will arise a thousand requests for others to erode the remaining agricultural land.”
“Gozo deserves more respect,” he said.
As announced, the small airport will cater specifically to fixed-wing aircraft with the least environmental impact, and the development cannot take up more land than is currently committed to the helipad.
What do you make of Sant’s comments?
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