"Pakistan delays China-funded airport opening over security fears" 23 August 2024

Pakistan has postponed the opening of the...New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA) over security fears...after mass protests brought southwestern Gwadar to a near standstill this month, dealing another blow to efforts to boost Chinese investment in its crisis-hit economy...

No new opening date has been announced for the $246 million China-funded project, which got off the ground following a grant deal with Beijing in 2015...

"All the required work and prerequisite arrangements on [the New Gwadar] airport have been completed and it's ready for flight operations," a government official familiar with the situation told Nikkei...

The delayed opening -- after an initial postponement last year -- comes amid concerns that lower-than-expected demand for flights into the region, beset by deadly militant attacks and a separatist insurgency, would quickly turn it into a white elephant...

Some fear the area's newest transport hub will become the next Mattala Rajapaksa International, a large Sri Lankan airport built with a Chinese loan that's been dubbed the "world's emptiest international airport" due to a lack of flights...