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Valencia Airport readies itself for the America's Cup

Added: (Wed Jan 24 2007)

Valencia Airport is presently putting the final touches to various renovation projects in preparation for the arrival of the America's Cup in June of this year. That said, the final pre America's Cup regatta will kick off in early April. The airport has been significantly remodelled with a new regional terminal, multi storey car park, runway extension, plane parking platform, cargo terminal and finally the linking of the airport to the city via Line 5 of the local Metro system with a journey time of 15 minutes. The line has also been extended so as to offer users the possibility of travelling down to the port from the city centre.

Valencia airport handled almost 5 million passengers in 2006 and 87,906 flights.Passenger numbers increased by 7.1% compared to 2005. The infrastructural plan for Valencia airport which was intended to deal with the planned expansion of the facilities at the airport foresaw Valencia airport having 4 million passengers by 2015 ; a figure which has now been well and truly exceeded.

Car parking spaces have been tripled with the construction of a multi storey car park with a capacity for 3,000 cars at a cost of €14 million. The runway has been extended by 500 metres bringing the length of the runway to 4.2 kms, thereby allowing planes the possibility of approaching the runway from a greater height thus reducing noise pollution.€17 million has been spent on the runway extension. A new regional terminal has also been built comprising 12,300 sqm at a cost of €17.2. The new terminal will be able to deal with up to 5 planes simultaneously. A new plane parking platform has also been built which will accommodate 9 planes at a cost of €16.4 million. A new cargo terminal has also been built as well as direct access from the airport to the new Metro line which will connect the airport to the city.

Due to the continuing boom in Valencia as well as the prospect of Formula 1 coming to Valencia in the near future, the remodelling of the airport while both necessary and welcome still is insufficient. With the 2015 figure of 4 million passengers having been already exceeded by almost 25% there will need to be radical thinking and bold decision making if the airport is to have any hope of keeping up with the unprecedented growth in the Valencian economy.

Valencia's increasing international exposure does bring some solace to property owners especially those with city properties as increasing international exposure of Valencia coupled with an ever growing cachet will undoubtedly push prime property prices ever higher. With over 320 days of sunshine a year, just 2 weeks of rain and situated right on the Med ; Valencia is becoming justly recognised as the Florida of mainland Europe with a truly enviable quality of life.

Article by Dermot Quinn, Valencia Property Hound Ltd