Opportunities and problems of Baltic regional airports development

Abstract

Airports privatisation and commercialisation are processes, which happen in many EU countries now, and for several countries problems related to airport system development are important. The first fundamental question of the airport system development for the Baltic countries is the base model question - one central airport or several equally developed in the regional airport network. Both possibilities have arguments pro and contra and opinions here are different.

Question about model of regional airports development is very similar to more general question about the state economic and social development model – monocentric, ―one strong region around capital‖, or polycentric, ―several developed regions in country‖. In Lithuania two regional development centres around Vilnius and Kaunas exist and polycentric model of state development has historical foundations. For Latvia and Estonia state capitals play dominating economic role and discussions about monocentric or polycentric models are more intensive. The problem is that different model supporters use different kinds of arguments. Monocentric model supporters argue that financial investments in the capital region give much better results than same investments in regions. Polycentric model supporters argue that it is necessary to ensure the same prosperity level in capital and regions. Discussions where one side uses economic arguments and other side uses social arguments rarely are finished with mutually acceptable solutions. As a result, Latvian National Development Plan at present time contains both the elements of polycentric model, including the development of regional economical centres, and the elements of monocentric model, including special development of the Riga region.

In case of the polycentric model acceptance, the necessity of regional airports system, as part of the transport infrastructure, stems from the necessity of regional social and economic development. In case of the monocentric model acceptance, there is no real need for regional airports network. The problem is that due to different reasons state level planning documents are not certain enough to make decision about monocentric or polycentric model of state development and it is necessary to find other arguments for regional airports development model choice. These additional arguments can be found from analogy with European countries, considering statistical data about factors influencing a number of airports in a given country.