It has taken a long time to this state. But now we, finally, achieved it.

Mostar airport is back in business, and, like the airports at Sarajevo and Banja Luka, open to civilian air traffic.

This week is the week for airport openings around the world. Hong Kong yesterday, Mostar today.

Mostar's airport is, I have to acknowledge, on a marginally smaller scale than Hong Kong's.

But I sometimes feel that the political obstacles which had to be overcome to get it open put it in the same league.

The truth of the matter, of course, is that airports should not be political places - although they all too often become so,

Airports are places to fly in and out of, not to haggle over.

Above all, airports stand for normality.

They make everyday life possible.

Tourism.

Travel.

Commerce.

Trade.

Airports mean business; and business means jobs.

Mostar and the surrounding region needs jobs and this airport will help to provide them by encouraging investment and promoting tourism.

Until now, that has been impossible because the airport was devastated during the war. Indeed, as has been pointed out, the confrontation line ran right down the centre of the runway.

But now that unhappy phase is at an end.

Now aircraft, not bombs, will roll down the runway of this jointly run airport, an airport which can and should be a fine example of unification and cooperation in Mostar and in the country as a whole.

This airport is - as Dayton makes clear - a city asset, for the whole of Mostar, and that is how it will remain. I hope that the Airport Authority - brought into being to speed up the re-opening of the airport - will soon give way to a joint City Administration. And I hope the Bosniac members will soon return to the table.

I and my office will continue to work towards greater multi-ethnicity in the composition of the Airport Company; but the key thing for all of us is to get the airport open and to get aircraft flying in and out of it and that is what we mark today.

Finally, let me thank those who have worked so hard to make today possible:

• the Chairman, and the Board, who have struggled on in difficult circumstances - and who will have to work harder still in the weeks and months to come;

• the EU for - literally - rebuilding this terminal, and for funding further improvements to the airport; and to the Spanish Government for their loan to the Airport Authority;

• and to General Lang and to SFOR for their vital support over many months. Without them we could not have opened this airport to civilian traffic today; and it is SFOR, and their predecessors IFOR, who have kept the place running and the flag of aviation - military aviation - flying here in recent years.

Today Mostar and its people gets their airport back.

Later today, this first civilian flights will take off from here, carrying with them the hopes and dreams of the people of this city for a brighter, peaceful future.

I urge you all to work hard to turns those dreams to reality, not just at this airport, but in all aspects of life in this city.

And I wish Mostar airport many years of prosperous and safe flying, as a gateway to this region and a window to the outside world.

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Remarks by the High Representative at the opening of the Mostar Airport
7 July 1998