Home » The Grottaglie-Taranto airport also becomes a hub for cargo aircraft

The Grottaglie-Taranto airport also becomes a hub for cargo aircraft

by admin

The Grottaglie-Taranto airport becomes an integrated logistic center for freight transport. It is the second mission of the Apulian airport after that of a spaceport for suborbital flights and infrastructure to test drones. With this further project, the Grottaglie-Taranto site responds to the National Airport Plan which classifies it as an airport of national interest intended to perform the functions of an integrated logistics platform to support industrial research and development. The spaceport, on the other hand, has been recognized by ENAC and other organizations for some years already.

In the cargo transport to Grottaglie-Taranto, the Gesfa company will invest 3.5 million euros. Gesfa has been in the area for about 10 years serving Boeing. In the Leonardo factory in Grottaglie two sections of the fuselage of 787 are built, even if now the activity is stopped, which are then embarked for the United States. The company has both the authorizations of Enac and the equipment for the cargo activity. Once the investment is complete, the airport will have an infrastructure capable of handling one wide body cargo (for example the B747) at a time, both arriving and departing. This project was presented in 2021 by Gesfa to Aeroporti di Puglia, the management company of the Puglia Region.

Cold rooms and cold chain

The integrated hub, whose works will start in January 2022, will also be equipped with cold rooms and will aim at the development of services connected to the “cold chain” and full cargo flights (freight only) with direct connections also with the source / destination areas of cargo traffic. Stefano Cavicchia, managing director of Gesfa, stated that “in 2022 we plan to complete the investment, which will in any case be gradual and flexible, and to define some partnerships with other parties interested in the growth of the freight yard”. “When fully operational – he added – the logistics center will have a warehouse for temporary storage and will guarantee all the operations necessary to allow the goods to transit safely, guaranteeing the conservation of the required quality”.

See also  Before the U.S. stock market: the "super roller coaster" quietly started, the three major futures indexes fluctuated cautiously_证券新闻_股票

The new infrastructure will serve the Ionian Special Economic Zone (port of Taranto plus Basilicata), the Customs Free Zone (port of Taranto), as well as the Apulian, Lucanian and southern systems. According to Aeroporti di Puglia, “this will determine the possibility of benefiting from the economic and procedural facilitations provided for the establishment of companies, seizing the opportunities deriving from the strategic positioning of the Taranto area in the context of the traffic that must reach the North from the Far East Europe”. All this, according to AdP, is linked to the development of the BRI (Belt & Road Initiative) and the so-called “Silk Road”. In fact, when fully operational, direct connections will be activated with China, Russia, the United States, as well as connections with international cargo hubs: Liège, Dubai, Istanbul, Doha, Paris Orly.

Because the focus was on specificity

For Antonio Maria Vasile, vice president of Aeroporti di Puglia, “the construction of the logistics hub at the Grottaglie-Taranto airport meets the requests for development of the territory made in recent months by the business world, not only in Puglia”. According to Alessandro Delli Noci, councilor for economic development of the Puglia Region, with this investment the airport is made “an integrated logistic platform to support industrial research and development”. It is clear that the cargo hub strengthens the specificity of the Grottaglie-Taranto airport. Being, between spaceport, cargo and support for the aeronautical industry, something different than the airports of Bari and Brindisi, also managed by AdP, which are essentially passengers with scheduled flights. Pierluigi Di Palma, president of ENAC recently declared: “The route of civil flights to Grottaglie excludes the spaceport. We have the idea that Grottaglie-Taranto is the infrastructure to be dedicated to these new frontiers “. While for Giuseppe Acierno, president of the Aerospace Technological District (Dta), “it was right to imagine in the last ten years that Puglia was not only aeronautical construction but also more, it could be more competitive, linked to innovative technologies that would have generated a market. Which in this case is not yet there. But drones and commercial space transport will arrive, it is inevitable, and when they do, those who are already positioned may have the opportunity to do something more ”. According to the Apulian regional governor Michele Emiliano, on the whole “we are walking on something infinitely more relevant, and lasting in impact, compared to scheduled flights, which have emerged physically transformed from the pandemic”.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy