Airports towards 220 million passengers in 2024

Better than the European average. Having emerged with broken bones from the pandemic and cut off from Pnrr funding even though the sector is fully involved in the ecological and digital transition, Italy's airports are resilient and in excellent health. The operational and financial shock caused by the Covid was overcome as early as 2023, thanks to tourist destinations and the robust development of domestic air traffic, despite sharply rising prices. The presence of direct intercontinental flights from Italy also returns to pre-Covid levels. And at the end of 2024, if the trend of the first eight months of the year is confirmed, transit passengers at Italian airports could reach 220 million: a new record. At the European level, on the other hand, the recovery of passengers compared to pre-Covid levels seems uncertain even in 2024, due to the difficulties of Germany, Holland and the Scandinavian area. In Germany and to some extent also in France there is also a change in domestic mobility, with less use of air travel in favour of high-speed rail.

This was revealed by a comparative study on European airports and the overall air transport scenario in Europe carried out by the Iccsai Transport and Sustainable Mobility centre of the University of Bergamo. The research was presented in Florence during an event hosted by Toscana Aeroporti (manager of the Florence and Pisa airports). Among those present were Pierluigi Di Palma, president of Enac, Carlo Borgomeo, president of Assaeroporti, and Roberto Naldi, managing director of Toscana Aeroporti.

After the historic record of 2023 (nearly 200 million passengers), traffic figures updated to the first 8 months of this year place Italian airports at the top in Europe, with 2023 and 2024 growth driven by the results of Roma Fiumicino, Italy's leading airport. In the January-August 2024 period, passengers at Italy's top 25 airports are 12.9% higher than in 2019 (the last year before Covid), although some airports have yet to complete the recovery, including Venice (-0.6%, and the only one among Italy's top 10 airports), Ciampino, Treviso, Lametia Terme and Genoa. By contrast, Bergamo Naples Bari and Brindisi are among the airports with the highest growth in the last five years. Fiumicino, for its part, grew by 38.1% in 2023 over 2022, totalling more than 40 million passengers, and by 11.5% in the first 8 months of this year over 2019. Meanwhile, the strong revival of Milan Linate continues in 2024, driven by the domestic market.

At the system level, in 2023 Italy will grow above the European average with 3.3 million more passengers than in 2019 (+1.7%), surpassing Germany's traffic and confirming its position as Europe's third largest market for air transport with 197.2 million passengers, behind Spain (281.6) and the United Kingdom (274.4).

However, looking outside European borders, there are risks that should not be underestimated, starting with the fierce competition from the new hubs in the Middle East. Stefano Paleari of Iccsai observes: "Doha and Dubai feed off the ability to intercept flows also from Europe. Then there is Turkey. In 2023 the two main airports in Istanbul together exceeded 100 million passengers. In Europe, London and Paris alone exceed 100 million passengers. Turkish Airlines is in fact the leading airline in the Mediterranean'.