The alarm raised by Unioncamere shakes the whole peninsula. From Treviso to Trapani. Wherever there is an airport deemed "not of national interest" by the State. According to the study edited by Uniontrasporti-Iccsai in collaboration with Cape Horn for Unioncamere and presented at the conference "Airports, the rediscovery", airports with traffic of less than 2 million passengers a year are at great risk. The EU directives on the elimination of public subsidies and the recent government plan (which provides for the transfer to the competent regions) could also lead to the closure of the so-called minor airports. With disastrous repercussions especially on the tourism sector.
"The tourist flows in the airports move over 1 billion and 450 million euros a year - explains the report - and only in those with traffic of less than 1 million passengers a year is an estimated expenditure of over 500 million euros". And for some peripheral provinces such as Ragusa, Trapani and Taranto, or difficult to reach with other modes of transport, such as Siena or Perugia, the plane becomes a vital means. "In this way there is also the risk of increasing inequality between rich and poor regions, accentuating an economic and social gap already evident in our country".
According to the president of Unioncamere Ferruccio Dardanello “We are facing a scenario of changes in our airport system that will produce significant effects for businesses. Although it is important to consider the aspect of profitability of existing structures, in the case of smaller airports the current European and Italian design risks being heavily penalizing, as it neglects the effects produced from a social point of view - greater constraints on economic freedom, to the mobility of people, to the recovery of employment - and the environment. I am sure that the chamber system, thanks to its capillarity and constant interaction with local economies, will be able to continue to make its contribution with proposals that contemplate and share the various needs of the territories, as we have already had the opportunity to do on the occasion of the consultation on the proposal for EU guidelines on state aid to airports and airlines which was held in September 2013”.
But Unioncamere's appeals are not supported by the president of ENAC, Vito Riggio, which saves only a few exceptions in the system of minor airports: stopovers on islands, such as Linosa and Lampedusa, or the case of Crotone, which is located in a particularly sensitive area. “For the rest – he says – looking at the real plan of the airports I don't see any risk of any effects on the territory due to the closure of a small airport. One cannot think that everyone can have an airport on their doorstep, which perhaps only makes one flight a day. The market is free, if the Region or local authority wants to keep its airport open, that's fine. But you cannot ask for subsidies from the state”.
