The Italian air transport system has been greeted as “the cornerstone and the protagonist of the socio-economic scenario of the country” at the conference held for the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Assaeroporti, during which Censis presented his research about Airport system in Italy.

During the speeches, in particular of the Undersecretary to the Ministry of Cultural Activities and Tourism, Dorina Bianchi, and the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Graziano Delrio, the centrality of this sector for the development of the country emerged: not only it is more than 3.6% of the Italian GDP, but also has a great impact on tourism.

The investment growth of the last 4 years in the major airports demonstrates the new awareness of the need to improve and strengthen the airport industry. And also in future, when traffic is expected to double by 2035, investments of about 4.2 billion euros will arrive in a five-year period, of which 93% from the same management companies and only 7% from Public Institutions.

Finally something begins to improve even in the so-called smaller airports (with less than 2 million passengers). Until now, they have been affected by a counter-trend, and they have lost in the last 5 years a considerable percentage of their traffic, because of the budget problems of the management companies, mainly public. Yet these airports, located in marginal areas, not reached by other fast means of transport, play a crucial public role in ensuring links, especially nowadays, when the tourism industry is focusing on relocation, attracting tourists even in small centers, in the same way scenically and culturally interesting.

The position of Air Alliance and its CEO, Marco Bruno, present at the conference, has always been forward-looking. We believe that air transport is a key strenght in the economic development of that part of Italy, potentially great tourist attraction, but not enough valued, also because of the absence of an efficient network of connections. To this end, a successful working relationship between Ing. Bruno and Ria Grant Thornton, member firm of Grant Thornton International, also present at the conference with its experts, Giulio Panza and Enrico Bernardini, started, and thanks to this synergy, innovative and profitable systems are being developed to optimize the public resources available to regional airport operators.