The “Fiumicino Airport – Master Plan 2030” for Italy’s busiest airport in terms of traffic was presented in March 2017 by national civil aviation agency ENAC and Airports of Rome (ADR), a subsidiary of infrastructure group Atlantia, whose principal shareholder is the family of Luciano Benetton.
The project, which outlines the construction of a fourth runway, had been waiting to be approved by the ministry.
“The commission expressed a negative opinion about the environmental compatibility of the project, judging that the construction of airport infrastructure was incompatible with the natural reserve zone,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We have put a halt to the Fiumicino Airport extension. This would have been the umpteenth attempt to pave over an already tortured area. For me, this is a victory,” Environment Minister Sergio Costa wrote on Facebook.
Costa added that the creation of a fourth runway would not only have affected the reserve, but also have expropriated land owned by dozens of families.
In a statement later on Monday, ADR reiterated it had been working with ENAC for some time on a plan to increase the airport’s capacity while fully respecting the environment and the area around the airport.
It said the number of passengers at Fiumicino had been growing steadily for more than a decade and forecasts indicated the infrastructure would need to be developed in coming years.
More than 43 million passengers passed through Fiumicino in 2018, up by five per cent from the previous year and roughly 23.2 per cent of Italy’s total passenger traffic, according to ENAC.
