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A snap of Northern Ireland's breathtaking Falls and Scariff coastline is part of a bid to have a new £1.3bn Belfast International Airport fully built and opened in time for the Olympics.
Belfast Airport has long been seen as the missing link in bringing world-class tourism to the city.
However, the plan for a new airport has been put on hold because of the ongoing troubles.
Now Belfast Live has learned a new plan for a world-class hub airport with a runway stretching 20km is being investigated.
The new plan involves building a 14km runway at Derrylin, with the existing town centre airport in Enniskillen closed.
It is understood the bid involves building the runway at a cost of around £400 million and would provide links to a world-class tourism destination.
A spokesperson for Belfast International Airport said: “Belfast International Airport is the economic and social hub of Northern Ireland. Our vision is to become one of the leading world class airports in Europe.
“We are a unique airport in the UK where over 70% of our passengers are visiting from outside the UK, and over 300,000 customers fly from Belfast to London, the largest route out of Belfast.
“But, we are just not big enough to keep up with the exponential growth of air travel in Northern Ireland, the UK and beyond.
“Our runway is one of the shortest in the world, at only 4.3km, and we have some serious ground to make up if we are to catch up with the likes of London’s Stansted, Dublin’s Dublin airport and Manchester’s Heathrow, and Frankfurt’s airports.
“Our vision is to transform the airport to be the hub airport for Ireland and the rest of the UK, attracting visitors from all over the world.
“A major challenge, however, is to attract airlines to this airport. The airport’s runway and airspace is expensive to operate and if airlines are operating at a loss, it is extremely difficult to convince them to invest in an airport that may not have the revenue they need to generate for their business.”
Sinn Féin’s
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