– The Central Communication Port project prepared by Law and Justice was completely unfeasible. We made it realistic – said Maciej Lasek, government representative for CPK, in “Fakty po Faktach”.
During Wednesday's press conference, the Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that the new government intends to continue the construction of the Central Communication Port. – An airport will be built in Baranów. It will be the most modern airport in Europe, said the head of government.
On Thursday, the Sejm held a presentation of government information on the new opening of the CPK project and a debate on the matter.
The CPK project prepared by Law and Justice was completely unfeasible
The guest of Thursday's “Fakty po Faktach” was Maciej Lasek, government plenipotentiary for the Central Communication Port.
– Project (CPK – ed.) prepared by Law and Justice was completely unfeasible, he said. He recalled that the airport in Baranów was to be opened in 2028. – We are not leaving it. We fixed this project, he said.
Lasek said that the previous government did not want to talk about the project with the then opposition. – Every large infrastructure project should be built with political consensus. So we should talk. For four years, during the infrastructure committee, we asked Marcin Horała: What is the schedule? How do you want to finance it? Basically, we were constantly dismissed and the schedule was never shown. Time was running out, the airport completion date still remained the same. Virtually all experts said it was unrealistic, Lasek said. – Today we made this project a reality – he added.
A vision of a completely new CPK. “Poland will become one big megalopolis”Michał Tracz/Fakty TVN
Lasek: today there is no topic of closing Chopin Airport at all
Lasek emphasized that the success of Chopin Airport will lead to the success of CPK, because – as he explained – the volume of passengers served must be built in order to be able to transfer it to Baranów. Asked whether the price for the success of CPK must be the closure of Chopin Airport, he replied: – We are not making a decision to close this airport. We are talking about transferring commercial traffic.
As he added, “we will see what will happen in the near future, i.e. over the next eight years, how air traffic will change, what new transport possibilities there will be.”
– This airport has excellent transport connections, it has only one drawback, and in fact it is something that was not foreseen at the beginning of the 2000s. There is no second parallel runway planned. And this cannot be changed, this cannot be overcome – said Lasek. – At some point, Chopin Airport will really exhaust its capacity – he added.
He noted that today “there is no topic at all” about closing Chopin Airport. – The first transport aviation base is also based at this airport. This airport is used by Airbus Military, and the factory located there is used by the Institute of Aviation. charter airlines use it – he said. He added that “the airport, which is close to the city, is part of critical infrastructure that can be used in a variety of ways, especially in these difficult times we live in.”
“Every zloty must be spent in accordance with the purpose”
Lasek said that the CPK project “must pay for itself”. – I think it will probably take about a dozen or so years – he assessed. He said that the government cannot build infrastructure that will not pay for itself. – But for such infrastructure to be created, every złoty in this company must be spent in accordance with the purpose – he emphasized.
– I was shocked when I came to this company and they told me: until now we have designed it according to the slogan “we have money, we don't have time”. In this way, you can spend any money and not get the effect. We are the guarantee that we are able to do it effectively and bring this project to the end, that it will start working – he argued.