Berceanu: The capital city needs no other airport

Transport minister Radu Berceanu plans to merge Bucharest’s two airports, Henri Coanda and Aurel Vlaicu, into a single entity called Compania de Aeroporturi Bucuresti. Berceanu, who studied at the Aerospace Engineering Faculty and was awarded an honorary title of master of sports in model aviation, says Bucharest needs no other airports beside the existing ones and that these need to be more efficiently managed. Last year, former transport minister Ludovic Orban announced he would start procedures for the construction of an airport in southern Bucharest, most likely in Adunatii Copaceni. “Unlike other ministers, I have an aviation background and believe Bucharest needs no other airport in any other part. The so-called airport of Adunatii Copaceni does not exist even on paper. The two airports we have now just need to be very well managed,” Berceanu says. Berceanu presented the idea of combining the two airports into a single company during his 2006-2007 tenure as well, using the Paris system as a model. “(…) In Paris there are seven airports and they are all part of a single company, but we have two, each with a different management, competing with each other. This leads to lower prices and taxes, and the state is losing money,” Berceanu says. He will not close down Baneasa airport, as the former prime minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu had announced last year, saying the airport should be turned into one for business travel. Should a decision be made regarding the construction of a new airport for low-cost flights, Berceanu proposes the modernisation of the military airport near Urziceni.