Fiumicino Airport: first public consultation meeting on the development plan. It concludes at the end of November
The project, involving an investment of 9 billion, will see the construction of a new terminal and a fourth runway, and is expected to have a significant impact on employment, whilst enjoying broad political support and a strong focus on environmental sustainability.
The public debate on the Fiumicino Airport development plan got underway on Wednesday evening in the hall at Villa Guglielmi, in the airport municipality, before an audience of over a hundred people in attendance and a further 50 watching via livestream. This is the first of three meetings scheduled to take place in the area between now and November, following the publication of the project report on 23 September on the website dpsviluppofiumicino.it. During the event, speakers included, in addition to the chair of the public debate, Andrea Pillon, from Avventura Urbana, and technical experts from Aeroporti di Roma, the chairman and chief executive of ADR, Vincenzo Nunziata and Marco Troncone, the mayor of Fiumicino, Mario Baccini, and the Under-Secretary of State for Labour, Claudio Durigon, who joined via video link, following a presentation of the general contents of the plan, drawn up by ADR, which envisages 9 billion in investment, and developed in collaboration with ENAC.
Coping with 100 million passengers
The project is designed to meet the projected passenger traffic of 100 million passengers a year and includes a new terminal with 76 gates in the eastern part of the airport and a fourth runway running parallel to Runway 3, which will make it possible to shorten the current Runway 1, which will be used only for landings at certain times of the day, resulting in a drastic reduction of up to 80 per cent in the noise to which the local population is exposed.
Job opportunities
In his opening remarks, the Under-Secretary of State for Labour, Claudio Durigon, emphasised that ‘Fiumicino Airport is a jewel in Italia’s crown, as well as one of the most important international hubs’ and that, with the development plan, ‘there is the potential to significantly increase the workforce for the town of Fiumicino, the Province of Rome and, above all, the Lazio region. Talking about jobs and growth for Fiumicino Airport can only bode well for our future’.
Bipartisan support
Meanwhile, yesterday the development plan for Fiumicino Airport (Italia’s busiest airport, with 50.9 million passengers in 2025) received cross-party support. “We have a wonderful airport in Rome, but today Istanbul is giving us fierce competition, with airport infrastructure built in a very short space of time. And competition will also come from Portugal, with Lisbon,” said the leader of the M5S Giuseppe Conte. The “unprecedented alignment of centre-right and centre-left institutions behind a major project” represents “an important point” for Antonio Misiani, a PD senator, noting that the plan has been backed by figures from both the centre-right (the mayor of Fiumicino, the president of the Lazio Region and the Minister for Infrastructure) and the centre-left (the mayor of Rome): ‘Perhaps,’ he added, ‘a very important piece is missing, one that lies in the vicinity of Piazza Colonna’. ‘Fiumicino Airport is vital for us, because if a multinational company is to come and invest in Lazio, being able to rely on well-connected industrial estates just an hour’s drive from the airport is a key factor,’ emphasised the president of Unindustria, Giuseppe Biazzo.
