Airports: chaos in Catania; Sciara Holding pushes for a Messina airport - FOCUS
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Seven hundred departures cancelled in four days and a suspension of flights extended (for now) until 4 pm tomorrow. Mount Etna’s eruption, which is putting on a spectacular show and has created a huge cloud of ash, is paralysing air transport in eastern Sicily. Consequently, the Minister for Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci, is calling for a round-table discussion to address the crisis and argues that “it is the airport in Catania that is out of place, not the volcano”. Whilst he had already considered relocating air traffic to Enna back in 1999, amid today’s chaos, Sciara Holding has once again stepped up the pressure, proposing its own solution: the Intercontinental Mediterranean Airport, in the Messina area.
“In light of current events,” says CEO Fabio Bertolotti in a statement, “the presence of an airport on the Milazzo plain has become not just a necessity, but a matter of urgency.” He points out that the expression of interest phase for land and properties in the areas covered by the project – in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Merì and Milazzo – has officially begun. The project, funded entirely by private capital, involves an investment of 1.2 billion euros, plus a further 450 million for a dedicated solar farm. The expected return on investment is between 9% and 15% per annum once fully operational, with a payback period of between 5 and 8 years and up to 120,000 jobs in total.
According to the plans, the airport would help to bridge the infrastructure gap in the South in the cargo sector, given that “all the regions south of Rome are completely dependent” on the capital for intercontinental supplies. Messina Airport “would have a straightforward, logical and obvious opportunity to operate 365 days a year in this sector alone”, according to the company’s official website, reducing delivery times to the southern regions without competing with the airports in Palermo, Catania or Reggio Calabria because – apart from freight transport – “it caters to passengers from the Americas, Asia and India”.
Meanwhile, “a very positive response has been received from the landowners contacted so far”. In order to “get started”, the company states, “we are solely and exclusively awaiting the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT) to include the project, on valid grounds, in the National Airport Plan”.
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