MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ezeiza airport readies for 13 million pax and Airbus 380

Argentina's main international air terminal Ezeiza is to undergo a remodeling program involving 400 million US dollars announced this week the concessionary company which also manages most of the country's main airports

Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 said the project includes a new terminal for international flights, another for domestic passengers and expansion of the parking lots which should prepare Ezeiza for handling the new jumbo aircrafts and 13 million passengers annually. A new control tower has also been planned together with improved fire and safety facilities, an energy distribution plant and relocation of the radar system. The air terminal will have 19 gates with extensible arms, expanded cargo and ramp services, improved illumination and signaling plus a greater operational area for commercial aircrafts. "Our objective is to accompany the increase in tourism and business passenger movement providing services and infrastructure to first level international standards", said Ernesto Gutierrez, CEO of Aeropuertos Argentina 2000. Ezeiza in the busiest airport in Argentina, 20 miles from downtown Buenos Aires, and with the announced reforms the air terminal should be ready to begin receiving the Airbus 380, the world's largest commercial aircraft which can carry anywhere between 600 and 800 passengers. According to the project, the new Ezeiza should be finished in two years time with a capacity to receive 13 million travelers annually, of which 10 million from international flights, half a million in transit and 2.5 million domestic flights. Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 manages most of the country's airports including the main air terminal in neighboring Uruguay, Carrasco, fifteen miles from downtown Montevideo. The owner of the company Eduardo Eneurkian, a self made Argentine businessman of Armenian origin, also financed the building of the memorial at the Argentine cemetery in the Falkland Islands dedicated to the Argentine combatants who died during the South Atlantic conflict in 1982.