Enac presents the Annual Report on air transport in Italy, obviously very problematic, given that it refers to the 2020 pandemic. Covid brought the sector to its knees, which ended the year with traffic down by 72.5% and an overall economic loss for the system of over one billion euros in the March-September period alone. The sector is already projecting itself towards a future to be conquered with greater integration of the various modes of transport and an increasingly green approach, but in the meantime the numbers for 2020 show a collapse in passengers to 52.7 million, with a stronger decline for the international traffic. Fiumicino airport is confirmed as the first airport (despite a -77.5%), followed by Malpensa (-74.9%). Ryanair remains firm on the podium as the first carrier in Italy, keeping Alitalia at a distance (with 11.8 million passengers of the Irish company against 6.5 of the former national airline), which however manages to slightly undermine the low cost in the ranking for national traffic only.
“The pandemic has brought the sector to its knees, but we believe that with the restart we will have a recovery even in a short time”, says the president of ENAC Pierluigi Di Palma who, recently appointed, aims to put passenger rights back at the center ( as evidenced by the recent tightening to protect minors and the disabled) and to give the institution a “new vision” that extends the boundaries from air transport to the aerospace sector. Precisely with the new ‘space race’ we are witnessing, in fact, he explains, “a great challenge awaits our country which, unlike the recent past, must find the systemic capacity to achieve a cohesive government of the entire aerospace sector, from ultralight to space “. In this sense, ENAC is already working with suborbital flights, which see the Taranto Grottaglie airport at the forefront as a site where to build the first spaceport in Italy: within the year “we think the latest regulations and the the goal – says general manager Alessio Quaranta – is to “start experimenting in 2023”. But the recovery of the sector after the emergency also passes through other priorities. “It is more necessary than ever to continue to reflect on the significance of the development of the sector in an ecological key”, underlines the Minister of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility Enrico Giovannini. Then there is the issue of integration between various modes of transport, insists the minister who suggests the somewhat futuristic idea of integrating airplanes and bicycles: baggage at the destination. It is an extreme example – he concludes – to say that integration is crucial “.