New airport to open in Romania this week

Romania will inaugurate its first new airport in over 50 years this week, with the goal of serving over one million customers annually by 2026, local media reported.

Aeroportul International Brasov (Brasov-Ghimbav International Airport) will be the country’s third largest, after Henri Coanda near Bucharest, and Cluj-Napoca, west Romania. It is expected to create 4,000 jobs directly and a further 6,000 indirectly.

Brasov-Ghimbav will officially open on Thursday, June 15, when flag carrier TAROM will run a “symbolic” flight from Bucharest to Brasov, Digi24.ro reported.

The airlines and services operating will initially be Dan Air (to Barcelona, Brussels, London–Gatwick, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart), Wizz Air (to Dortmund and London–Luton), Aegean Airlines (to Heraklion, Crete) and Animawings and HiSky (both to Antalya, Turkey). Airport representatives said they will discuss domestic flights with airlines after June 15.

Airport will be third largest in Romania

The airport is located in Ghimbav, near Brasov, eastern Romania, next to the future A3 motorway. It is the first airport to be built in post-communist Romania, the 17th commercial airport in the country, and Romania’s most modern facility.

After a total investment of nearly EUR 140mn, the new airport has ten check-in counters, a 2,800-metre runway and a virtual flight control tower, with air traffic control operated from Arad International Airport, 250 miles away.

Brasov County Council President Adrian-Ioan Vestea said the “innovative” airport “has the latest technologies … in terms of air traffic control: we are leaders in Eastern Europe.”

Goal to break one million passengers per year

In the first year of operations, the airport is expected to service some 300,000 passengers. Traffic is expected to reach one million passengers by 2026, and a second terminal or an extension to the existing building is envisioned for 2027-33. 

Brasov International Airport Autonomous Authority Director Alexandru Anghel said “the terminal was made to be able to accommodate 1-1.2 million passengers per year”.

A five-mile rail connection from the airport to the Brasov railway station will be financed from the Next Generation EU recovery fund, at an estimated cost of EUR 300mn.

Project took almost two decades to complete

The opening of Brasov-Ghimbav on Friday will represent the culmination of almost 20 years of planning. The airport charter for the 110-hectare site was officially signed on 14 November 2005. The planned costs of the project were originally set at EUR 87mn.

Canadian firm Intelcan inaugurated the construction of the airport on 15 April 2008, with a completion target of 24-30 months. However, due to legal matters and a lack of funds, Intelcan left the project and was replaced by local authorities.

On 18 November 2012, the Brasov County authorities signed a EUR 12.7mn contract to build the runway with Vectra Service, a local construction company. Eventually, work on the 2,820m (9,252 ft) runway recommenced in April 2013. It was officially inaugurated on 3 October 2014.

The contract for the construction of the 11,780m² main terminal building was awarded to the Romanian contractor Bog’Art Bucharest and signed on 21 August, 2019. Construction work for the passenger terminal started on 17 March 2020 and was finished a year later. The airport was fully completed last month.