Ramallah The Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority of the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on Wednesday its readiness to start immediate construction of the Palestine International Airport (PIA).
Addressing a press conference, Dr Sa'adi Al Karnaz, the Palestinian Minister of Transport said: "We are ready to commence construction work at our new airport in the area of Al Baqeia'a in the Jordan Valley."
Dr Al Karnaz said that the construction work at the airport will start mid-2011, adding that the total cost will come up to $340 million (Dh1.25 billion).
Dr Al Karnaz said that the PA is fully determined to go ahead with the airport project which will be under full Palestinian sovereignty.
All the necessary studies as per the International Aviation Organisation have been conducted.
"We will not ask for Israeli approval for the construction of our airport, and we will not wait till an independent Palestinian state [has been] declared to start the construction of the airport," he said.
Dr Al Karnaz said that the construction of Gaza Airport and the PIA are parts of the agreements between the PA and Israel and that the entire world believes in the importance and relevance of the airport to the Palestinian economy.
He added that the Qalandia Airport will shortly be handed over to the PA which will use it as a central department for civil aviation.
He said that Qalandia Airport can only receive helicopters and no other type of aircraft as its area is crowded by the surrounding buildings.
Dr Al Karnaz stressed that the PIA meets all the conditions of the Civil Aviation Organization as its proposed location is far from residential areas where 70 per cent of the area of the airport lies inside the occupied Jerusalem area, and 30 per cent lies in Al Obaidiya and is six kilometres from the city of Jericho.
Approval issues
He said that PIA will be constructed on an area four kilometres long and two kilometres wide and will have two runways each measuring 3.2 kilometres long.
Other sources told Gulf News that the approval of the Israeli government is a must as the proposed airport is located in the C zone.
All designs for the airport are part of an inititiave by the Salam Fayyad Government to build the institutions of an independent Palestinian state within two years.
Sources added that the airport will be fully budgeted by EU member states.
The new airport was to be named the Yasser Arafat International Airport but was changed after immense pressure.
