The million dollar question has been the same for the past five days: When will terminal A of Catania Airport reopen? The answer is always the same: “We don't know”. After the fire that occurred on the night of July 16-17 on the fifth national airport chaos reigns, with enormous inconvenience for foreign travelers and tourists who have been dealing with delays, cancellations, transfers for days but above all an unprecedented uncertainty and lack of information. Basically it is not known who is leaving and who is arriving. And the lucky ones who manage to take off don't know where or when. The same goes for those who land. Catania? Comiso? Trapani? Lamezia Terme or Reggio Calabria? Palermo no, not anymore. All in the height of the tourist season when traditionally the whole of Sicily is taken by storm.
Catania airport: the latest news
Officially, the latest bulletin issued two days ago communicates that Terminal A is expected to reopen on Monday 24 July. Unofficially many already assume that the reopening will slip again, although only a small part of the Terminal A structure was damaged. However, the area is all under seizure by the competent authorities and the reclamation operations have yet to be carried out.
The plan at the moment seems to be to partially make up for the closure by increasing the capacity of the terminal C From two to 4 flights per hour up to 7. “ENAC and SAC are working to progressively improve the operations of the airport which are currently limited due to the fire which, on the evening of 16 July, involved a part of Terminal A of the airport. Specifically, in coordination with the Civil Protection, it is under construction a tensile structure which will make it possible to increase the capacity of Terminal C and consequently the number of flights operated every hour, as well as to facilitate waiting times and boarding operations. In short, therefore, the number of outbound flights will be increased from the current 2 per hour to 4 and subsequently up to 7 per hour,” reads a note.
In the meantime, a shuttle service for free between the Etna airport and the other airports that are trying very hard to boost their business to make up for the absence of the main airport on the island.
Palermo Airport says enough
However, on Wednesday the decision of the leaders of thePalermo Falcone and Borsellino airport which has decided to withdraw its availability for the rescheduling of Catania flights. "We are in continuous contact with ENAV, Enac and Assoclearance, with all the companies and we have already communicated that tomorrow, Thursday 20 July, we will accept a maximum of twenty flights ex Catania, while from Friday until Sunday there will be no space for any flight other than ours”, the general manager of Gesap, the company that manages the Natale Chieppa airport, announced on Wednesday. A decision that sent the president of the Region into a rage Renato Schifani: "I can only stigmatize the attitude of the general management of Palermo airport which, without a dutiful confrontation with the supervisory bodies, has declared that it no longer accepts flights originally intended for the Catania airport, thus generating a state of alarm and social tension in those who have chosen to find Sicily, a symbol of hospitality, an ideal place for holidays", commented Schifani. The Governor then called "everyone to a sense of responsibility", not without a final jab: "I will monitor unilateral attitudes and decisions far from the spirit of social cooperation which could seriously prejudice the overcoming of the hardships of these days".
At the moment, however, only the airports of Trapani and Comiso remain in the field to make up for it.
Catania airport: when does Sigonella open?
In the meantime we await the opening of the airport of the Italian military aviation of Sigonella, after the go-ahead from defense minister Guido Crosetto. It had already happened a few years ago, in 2012, in a situation of unusability of Fontanarossa caused by the rain of volcanic ash.
Sigonella therefore returns to the field. Yes but when? When will the operational and logistical problems be resolved, first of all that relating to check in. The current hypothesis is to check passengers in at Fontanarossa, and then transfer them on board a shuttle bus to Sigonella, from where the airliners will take off. The same will happen, with the reverse procedure, for return flights to Catania.
Agencies and tour operators in chaos
“We are not in a position to offer the necessary assistance to customers because we do not receive timely communications on the rescheduling of flights and transfers. We do not know the departure times of the shuttles between the airports. Our operators find it difficult to contact the same airlines for passenger rerouting. Many flights are rescheduled during the same navigation,” says Gianluca Glorioso, regional president of Fiavet Sicilia Confcommercio.
Not to mention the reservations, totally blocked during the period of maximum tourist flow for the entire island. “We try to offer maximum assistance – adds Glorioso – but without precise information it becomes almost impossible to do so. We invite the bodies concerned to provide information with timescales that allow us to work and the airlines to reinforce the presence of personnel to carry out the reroutings. Meanwhile, in the height of the tourist season, cancellations begin to arrive. The emergency can now be defined not as regional but as national and international".
At the moment the communication is not working. Many travelers are only notified at the last minute of their flight cancellations. They don't know if they will leave or from where. Not to mention those who have purchased a "round trip" flight and don't even know if they will be able to land in a few days.
"Travelers and tourists are left at the mercy, without information and services. The queues are endless, dozens of buses stopped in Trapani to transport passengers to Catania, accidents and traffic along with the suffocating heat of this period are ruining the holidays for tourists who have arrived on the island to spend their holidays. Waiting for answers, passengers are crowded like ants at 45 degrees in terminal C of Catania, as in the airports of Trapani and Palermo. A shameful situation not for a civilized country ”, denounces the national Adoc, together with Adoc Sicily and Adoc Catania.
