Following this pace and with a bigger airport, the number of visitors will increase exponentially in the next decade. Almost 1 million arrivals per year, among which more than 90.000 per plane in 2018, a number that has already increased in 2019 and is due to double in one decade! Projections in the study showed further increase, but are, according to the study itself, already overtaken by the facts: the number of arrivals is increasing more rapidly than foreseen.
Paros (and Antiparos, likewise) is already overcrowded during the summer period, as one can easily see when visiting the island. And it is not just the wildlife that is threatened. Worse, the project is liable not only to affect the quality of life in the neighbouring properties, because of the ill assessed noise and emissions nuisances, but it will also severely downgrade the global environment of Paros and damage irreversibly its attractiveness. The public interest pursued with the project is thus hard to identify. In absence of a specific aim, the need for it (a further increase of the number of visitors?) was taken arbitrarily for granted and no alternatives to it have been examined. It is worth emphasizing that, the authorization process during 20 for the extension of the Airport has not been undertaken in accordance with the Greek and European law, not only because the population concerned has not been really consulted, but more fundamentally because the environmental impact assessment there does not flag any defined objective for the project so that it is hard to assess what is the public interest it aims at. This is supposed to be an important qualitative “leap forward” compared with the existing situation.
#Paros greece airport free
Moreover, a multiplication of the built surface (from 750 to 12.000 sq.m.), that will comprise large “duty free shops” is foreseen. However, since recently the competent Ministry decided to convert it into a fully international airport, with a runway of 1800m that will easily come close to 2000m, if one counts the zones for planes added on both sides of the main runway, allowing, thus, even bigger and more polluting jet aircraft to land.
It is worth noting that the present airport, after the closure of the adjacent smaller one in Alyki, opened only in 2016 (with a 1400 m runway) allowing large size turbo-propeller planes to connect the island with the mainland (Athens or even Thessaloniki) several times per day, satisfying thereby the needs of the local population to access the capital for health, educational and social purposes only occasionally are there some jet flights from abroad (a.o. governmental policy, the projected extension of the Paros airport and the ongoing tendering procedure looks dangerously harmful. Papachelas’ –editor in chief of Kathimerini- main article of June 30), following the impact of mass (or “all-inclusive”) tourism on the local environment, societies and economies in the regions that have tried it (either on the Spanish coast or on Santorini/Mykonos).Ĭontrary to the a.m. This approach, the only compatible with environmental protection in Greece and EU/worldwide, is shared by most enlightened observers (see A. He stressed the need to promote the quality side of the Greek experience and the natural beauty of its islands rather than the quantity (“to get rid of the tyranny of the number of arrivals” (sic). PM Mitsotakis, in his recent speech on June 23 before the SETE (Hellenic Association of tourism enterprises) expressed his engagement for sustainable tourism, combining economic growth with environmental sustainability goals.
0 kommentar(er)
