Fiumicino Airport: ‘The fourth runway – a boost for the local area’

The expansion project for the “Leonardo da Vinci” will result in “a development and investment plan for the local area and the residents of Fiumicino”. This is the firm belief of the mayor Mario Baccini – a former minister, senator and member of parliament – who, since 2023, has been leading a centre-right coalition that aims to move beyond the perception of the municipality on the Lazio coast as being defined solely by its famous airport.

The challenge is to implement a ten-year investment plan worth 50 billion euros which, in addition to the airport’s fourth runway, includes the creation of a marina and cruise port. To this end, after stabilising the council’s finances and tackling tax evasion (“tax revenue has risen by 41.6 per cent over three years compared with 2022”), it established “Fiumicino 3000”: a foundation launched with an initial endowment of 400,000 euros which ‘could become, once the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) comes to an end, the only local authority body capable of generating an impact of two percentage points of GDP’. It is led by Enrico Michetti, a former candidate for mayor of Rome, whose aim is to draw up the city’s masterplan and present it to businesses.

At the heart of the plan remains the future of the Fiumicino Airport, with an investment programme worth 9 billion euros, launched by ADR without public funding, which envisages a four-runway layout and the construction of a terminal capable of accommodating up to one hundred million passengers a year by 2046. “We do not want to be at the mercy of infrastructure development; we want to steer it,” emphasises Baccini. For this reason, the mayor points out that, during the working group meeting that preceded the municipal administration’s approval, he “requested and secured a written commitment to the compensatory works, funded with 300 million euros, for improvements to the road network and public transport links”. The fourth runway will accommodate the flights currently handled on Runway 1: a move that will both create a public park and reduce noise by up to 80 per cent in nearby residential areas, according to ADR’s estimates.

“The old expansion project was self-serving because it addressed only the airport’s needs and not those of the city. The new proposal,” explains the mayor, justifying the council’s approval, “is, by contrast, part of a process of urban growth funded by the development itself.” Further growth of the airport would also increase the dividends guaranteed to the local council from its stake (0.1 per cent) in ADR: just under one million euros in 2025. The objective set out by the chief executive of Aeroporti di Roma, Marco Troncone, is to have the new runway up and running in time for the 2033 Jubilee.

The controversial cruise port project in the Isola Sacra area is also set to be included in this same timetable: conceived by his predecessor Esterino Montino, it had initially been included by the Jubilee Commissioner Roberto Gualtieri in the Works Plan for the last Holy Year. “I have embraced it as a strategic project because it involves the complete regeneration of an area that is currently derelict and used solely as a film set for films such as Suburra,” claims Baccini. This €600 million project was a key component of the mayor’s plan and, together with the airport, would boost Fiumicino’s appeal to tourists.