Harry Vassallo An airstrip in Gozo? It’s simply not a priority. There are too many other items affecting the quality of life that require attention. The investment of public funds in such a scheme could be electorally harmful to the government.
Although the shiny-and-new, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses element continues to keep the idea alive at some level in Gozo, an airstrip would serve only a handful of Gozitan residents directly.
For the vast majority, the disadvantage of double insularity will continue: commuting by sea to jobs in Malta will continue to be a daily burden, and no airlink to Malta will change that. If public funds were to be dedicated to such a project too many Gozitans will all too easily think of other issues on which the money should have been spent. Decent roads would top the wish-list, but many would also note the glaring absence of residential care facilities for senior citizens in Gozo.
Yet the debate has always been made in isolation, not against a background of priorities nor in the context of any long term plan for Gozo. Should Gozo be a smaller version of Malta? Are Gozitans keen to have their own traffic congestion, urban agglomeration and uncontrolled uglification? I think not. Nor do they all want Gozo to remain forever an agricultural backwater.
The solution must lie somewhere in between. Gozitans love their countryside and they want to achieve a standard of living that at least equals that in Malta. They have a right to. The question is: can both be achieved and if so how?
When visiting the Island in 2007 then Italian Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, launched the idea of Gozo becoming an eco-island. Needless to say, the idea was fully supported by fellow Greens, Alternattiva Demokratika. Today it is the Government that makes such statements. That is a particular vision of Gozo’s bid for a better future which creates its own constraints.
Imagine a pristine Gozo, squeaky clean, superbly maintained roads, a state of the art public transport system, energy self-sufficient by utilising every roof top including the roofs of its 48% vacant properties, all private vehicles converted to run on electricity. Imagine that this wonder has superb hospital and residential care facilities attracting a significant retiree population of such a size as to stabilise its tourism sector and allow for the establishment of year round employment. Imagine that without fuss and fanfare Gozo had developed its own IT industry exporting the services of its industrious population over the internet. Imagine that its agricultural sector has been backed up by a superb marketing machine giving added value to its organic produce sustaining a Gozo version of organic catering. It would at once become an attractive stop for cruise liner traffic and be able to develop a small but significant 5-star accommodation sector.
Would this dream Gozo need an airstrip? For whom, exactly? The discerning visitor who seeks out such venues across the globe has been known to trek across obstacles far more daunting than a trip to or from Luqa airport. Would foreign buyers of Gozo’s industrial or agricultural produce be put off because they cannot fly in directly? What’s happened to globalization and e-commerce?
An airstrip for commuting between Malta and Gozo fails on the trade off between cost, noise pollution and value added for a select few. The proposal was written off years ago and there is no reason to revisit it. An airport fully equipped to welcome mass tourism becomes a massive, direct threat to the attractiveness of Gozo. How many tourists? How many flights how often? Aircraft how big? An airport in Gozo of any significant size is impossible to run without disproportionate impact on the whole island.
It would require a completely different vision of Gozo’s future: a mini-Ibiza, a Pacevilization of Calypso’s Isle. I’m not even sure that it could work. If or when it fails, it would be too late to recover the intangible assets such as peace and quiet that Gozo possesses and is now beginning to appreciate as a vital part of its identity.
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