MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay has a new air terminal with annual capacity for 3 million pax

Uruguay officially opened this week the country’s new Carrasco international air terminal with a capacity to manage 3 million passengers annually, which makes it operational until 2030.

The new facilities demanded an investment of 165 million US dollars and makes Carrasco the most modern airport in the area according to Puertas del Sur which have the concession of the terminal. Puertas del Sur, under the name Aeropuertos 2000 also has the concession over most of Argentine airports and Malpensa in Milan, Italy.

The shell shaped terminal has a covered area of 45.000 square meters, eight simultaneous boarding gates, four telescopic arms which take passengers directly to the aircraft plus 44 check-in and 24 migration desks.

The new marble and glass structure with virtually no columns was designed by one of the world’s leading architects Uruguayan-born Rafael Vignoly who has his offices in New York. The building has several floors for shops, restaurants, free shops, services and other facilities totalling almost 100.000 square metres for commercial use plus a parking lot for 1.200 vehicles.

Considered a major communications investment for the country the inauguration gathered over a thousand people including most of the Uruguayan political system, currently on the campaign trail for October 25th general election.

In a much praised gesture President Tabare Vazquez invited his predecessor Jorge Batlle to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony since the project was presented, approved and designed during his administration.

Public Works Minister Victor Rossi, one of the speakers at the ceremony also acknowledged that the new terminal had been the brain child of the previous administration and said the message was that “no major public works depends on an only government, it’s an obligation to continue and the same way we expect the next government, whoever is elected, will continue with the investment in the deep water port in Rocha on the Atlantic coast”.

Presidential candidate Pedro Bordaberry who was a minister in ex president Batlle’s cabinet said it “was a good sign for Uruguay that we are all together at the inauguration. It is evidence that private sector concessions are a good instrument for the future”.

He also recalled that the ruling coalition was the main opposition force at the time of the air terminal building decision, and had viciously attacked the project “until they were elected to government”.

Nevertheless the new terminal won’t be operational until at least mid November because the ground accesses still have to be finished and the plan is to move most of the services infrastructure from the old terminal to the new one in the least time possible. Besides staff are still being trained for the management of all the new electronic control and surveillance equipments.

Puertas del Sol is a subsidiary of Corporacion America that belongs to the Argentine businessman Eduardo Eunerkian, who also happens to be the man who financed the building of the Memorial at the Argentine cemetery in Falklands, which was officially opened last Saturday.