Writing this story was inspired by this great, but unfortunately, for now, unfinished tale here: Ikarus Airport- or a tale about a typical European regional airport
All characters and events in this story are entirely fictitious. Any similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
European Aviation News Network - INFOBOX
Ibiza Intl. Airport (IBZ)
Actual known keyfacts:
Concept:
-huge international airport as international hub in Europe.
-targeting an ultimate passenger experience and extremely efficient turnarounds for airplanes.
-so it aims for very fast baggage handling and highly efficient pax transfer operations
-for official opening it’s expected that not all terminals will be opened from the scratch
Costs:
300 million euros -original plan
650 million euros - actual official estimate (outdated)
Size:
About 50.000.000 sqm
4 runways from 800 m up to 1160 m
7 independent terminals
5 floors
84 medium stands
City connection:
4 subway stations
17 bus stops
24 car stops
Pax handling:
12 information desks
168 check-in desks
168 boarding desks
84 pax security check-points
Staff:
1500 employees needed for full operations
30+ staff security checkpoints
30+ staff rooms
Decentralised baggage handling for high speed baggage handling:
19 baggage bays
19 baggage claims
4 fully equipped baggage-scan-areas
About 150 baggage trucks
Additional airport services:
-aircraft catering service
-aircraft cleaning service
-aircraft de-icing service (as rarely needed on Ibiza Island only two de-icing-pads)
European Aviation News Network - EXCLUSIVE STORY
Another scandal at new giant Ibiza airport
A reportage from our reporter sirhc80
June 2019 - Vienna/Ibiza: After we’ve revealed the huge scandal about shady finances of europe’s actually biggest airport project, last month, we’ve found evidence for a massive political corruption scandal during set up of this project. So the construction consortium, named Big Realty Ibiza Building Enhancement Limited (BRIBE Ltd.), is sinking even deeper in that huge corruption scandal.
So let’s first have a look back: Last month we’ve informed our readers about scandalous intransparency and mysterious cash flows around this huge airport construction project. As we’ve found out, the project is running totally out of money.
When the project was started, Austrian and Spanish government supported the project with 100 million euros each, while the international construction consortium BRIBE Ltd. threw in another 100 millions - nobody knew, where exactly coming from.
Our research stated clearly, that the construction consortium massively ran out of funds and is in debt for another 100million euros, now. And -it’s absolutely incredible- nobody at BRIBE is able to tell, where all the money went to. There are dozens and dozens of bankrupt or disappeared subcontractors, reorganized subsidiary companies, shifted and later backshifted projects - it’s hard to make heads or tails of this business network, headed by BRIBE Ltd…
Beyond that, BRIBE’s newly appointed CFO Igor Donno said at last month’s press conference: “Honestly speaking the papers are chaotic. We first have to put together all the paper scraps from our former CFO’s shredder machine, to get a picture of our financial situation. But it’s a fact, that we’re out of money. So either governments will support us with some more money, or we have to close down everything”. Been asked about how much money we’re talking about, I. Donno said: “Well, just to keep construction running, we’ll need around another 50 millions. When we have made up our new calculations, I can tell you more detailed figures, but as far as calculations are actually made, we will need at least another 200 millions, to finish the airport. At least. But we are already negotiating with Spain’s and Austrian’s governments about some additional funding. Even if Austrian’s government’s reluctant attitude about this is a drawback, we are quite sure to be able to continue construction.”
So when summing up the figures, this airport construction site already has cost 400 millions, according to CFO I. Donno, at least additional 250 million euro are needed.
On the other hand we are in touch with a whistleblower from BRIBE’s financial department who has sent us documents implying that actual construction progress is never ever worth more than 250 millions. Maximum. So, if this will be proven, about 150 million euros have just … disappeared. Further investigations will clear this, hopefully.
However, after this debtor’s oath, it is clear: This airport could easily become a grave of billions.
But what does all of this mean for the opening date?
Attentive readers know, that the project already had a tight schedule, when initiated. BRIBE’s newly appointed CEO Ive Noclue: “I think it’s absolutely obvious, that -because of all this mess- we won’t be able to to realise the originally foreseen opening date in 2025. We are quite sure, that we will be able to set up a new opening date, anytimes between 2030 and 2035, but we need to check everything first. For example: It looks as if the fire protection equipment was not installed properly, from our -actually bankrupt- subcontractor. Which could be an explanation where all the money went to, but needs a detailed investigation and reassembling. We are already in touch with our colleagues from Berlin airport (BER). So you can see we are aware and taking advice from the best experts for delayed airport openings all over the world!”
But what’s the new scandal, now? Well, when we were digging deeper and deeper, where all the mess has it’s origins, we uncovered another unbelievable story about the new Ibiza Airport:
The whole project was a result from political corruption:
In 2017, when the foundation for the project was laid, nobody was able to tell, who initiated this project. Who was the mastermind, who was the one, having the idea building one of the biggest airports of the world on Ibiza island?
We’ve found the answer: It was an illegal countertrade between some Austrian and Spanish right-wing populist politicians and some -still unknown- high-net-worth individuals. We’ve found a video, where C.H. Chastre, a high rising Austrian far right wing populist and leader of the National Freedom Party, and Juan S. Obornable, an important politician of Spanish FOX party, are discussing an incredible countertrade. The video shows both politicians and a Mr. John Doe, a representative of an unnamed high-net-worth-individual, having a party at a mansion on Ibiza in early 2017. The video is all in all about 7 hours, unfortunately we can not publish it, for some legal issues we are actually dealing with. But we hopefully will publish it soon!
So while drinking a lot of vodka and red bull, the three men are discussing how it’s done to gain political power in Austria and Spain, and what’s the price for it:
“If you are buying our three most important newspapers and, afterwards, you advise them to push public opinion towards our party and our opinions, we will win upcoming elections! And then, you’ll get the paycheck. As we then will hold the majority in our government, we will make sure, that your company will be awarded the contracts for all the huge projects we are planning” C.H. Chastre explains to Mr. John Doe.
So during the night, the politicians agreed to build a huge, international hub airport in Spain. The contract will be awarded to an intransparent business consortium of offshore companies and the airport will be built in Spain, as Juan S. Obornable insisted: “Bribing officials is much cheaper, here in Spain! And as it won’t be as easy to influence public opinion in Spain, as it is in Austria, we at least want to have our hands on the project money!”
And, as usual when thieves are among thieves, when Mr. Doe and Mr. Chastre were left alone, C.H. said: “As I’m quite sure, you will take out all the money you can, it is better to build it in Spain! We do not want to deal with the leftovers from this projects…!”, he committed laughing out loud.
So looking at the actual situation of Ibiza airport and at least Austrian’s politics, we are having the feeling, that the original plan was exactly realised, as discussed during this night in 2017.
Furthermore, we found out, that, during the last year, the BRIBE Ltd. Consortium was reconstructed several times in so many different ways, that none of the original founding companies is part of it, today. Most of the old companies, as we were able to find them, are closed down and it seems as if most of them had been typical letter-box companies on Cayman islands, British Virgin Islands or in Delaware. So without being able to reconstruct the cash flows, for now, we are quite sure, that most of the money has disappeared.
If it wasn’t reality, I would say: What an unbelievable story about corruption on an extraordinary level - but believe us: It’s true! We are all shocked!
As a first reaction Austria fell into a big political crisis, the vice-chancellor and all National Freedom Party ministers have resigned, afterwards the parliament threw the chancellor and his leftover ministers out of office, and voted for re-elections. An interims government was appointed by Austrias president.
Interestingly, in Spain there are nearly no reactions, except of transparency international’s usual press announcment, there is practically no reaction. The reason for this, could on the one hand be, that they are acutally facing other huge problems, with Catalan independence movement. On the other hand, on the video record, Juan S. Orbonable is mumbling so extremly fast in spanish language that in fact the only understandable words are “mucho dinero” - very very often.
So we will see, if any spanish translator or lip reader will be able to get more out of the video records.
For all the details, some copies of original documents we’ve found, and transcripts of the video, please visit our members section behind our paywall: www.aviationnewsnetwork.ibz/members
Nevertheless, as you know we are aviation fans, asides of this political-financial thriller, we can’t help to look forward to get first impressions of this monstrous airport! For now it’s still a big secret, as these criminals kept all the details confidential, there are no pictures available, no details, not even some key facts are known.
But as investigations are just starting, and we will stay in touch with and protect our whistleblower at BRIBE Ltd., we are quite sure that everything will be turned up and down, soon, so we are confident that we will able to provide first details, or even pictures, of Ibiza International Airport, soon. So stay tuned, we will update asap!