Halve the number of Italian airports and strengthen the infrastructure of the surviving airports without any intervention by the State. This is the goal of new plan being studied by the Minister of Economic Development, Corrado Passera. As "La Repubblica" writes today, the issue could be addressed by the Government already during the next Council of Ministers, scheduled for Friday 24 August.
According to the project – defined together with ENAC – of the more than 60 airports active today in our country about forty would remain alive, even if the ultimate goal would be to go down to 33. Most of the smaller airports will therefore have to close their doors, unless Regions and Municipalities decide to invest their own resources to make them survive.
“With this definitive scheme – explains the president of ENAC, Vito Riggio – investors will have the certainty of being able to decide on what and how much to invest in the sector, while the country will have the opportunity to think about which infrastructures the most important airports will have to serve. All the other airports will pass to local authorities, who will decide whether they want to use public money to keep them alive".
The Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Mario Caccia, confirmed today on the sidelines of the Communion and Liberation Meeting in Rimini that “the national plan for airports must be concluded within the year. It is not tolerable that in a country that needs to improve the use of its resources there is a quantity of airports that do not respond to a logic, to a need of the economy, but only to the fact that they are there. We have to recover resources, avoid waste”.
As for the numbers released by the newspaper, Ciaccia explained that “the philosophy of reduction is all there, but what we are studying is not exactly the same thing. Let's say that the numbers are different”.
Now let's see what the fate of the main Italian airports should be:
ROME FIUMICINO
The main national hub through which the bulk of national and international traffic to and from central Italy will pass. Adr has already prepared the master plan between now and 2030.
ROME CIAMPINO
It will be transformed into a "city airport" and will host only national traffic.
Viterbo
New structure, yet to be defined, intended for low cost. The necessary investments should be at least 1,7 billion euros.
MILAN MALPENSA
It will strengthen as an intercontinental and multi-carrier stopover.
MILAN LINATE
Like Ciampino, it should become a "city airport", but also a privileged airport for business customers heading to Europe.
TURIN AND GENOA
They will be considered "strategic stopovers" and will maintain important national and international connections.
VENEZIA
Defined in the plan as a "strategic intermodal node and intercontinental gate" which, together with the Treviso and Trieste airports, will constitute "the privileged gateway to Eastern Europe".
BOLOGNA
It will become a strategic port of call in the North Center with the subsidy of Pisa (low cost) and Florence (business).
NAPLES, CAPODICHINO AND GRAZZANISE
The nature of "strategic hub" for Capodichino has been confirmed, which will be further integrated with the Salerno airport, pending the construction of the new Grazzanise airport, to which a large part of the Campania traffic will be diverted. At that point Salerno will become a destination for low cost and cargo.
CHEAT AND BRINDISI
The first is considered a "strategic hub", where only scheduled flights will pass. The toast vocation will instead be that of low cost.
