Another major infrastructure project, after the Bridge, is under consideration Mit. This is an old acquaintance, certainly not new to the news and which had already divided, quite a bit, opinions on its actual usefulness. Sicilian League sources in Rome have leaked that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the National Civil Aviation Authority are evaluating the feasibility project for the airport that could soon be built in the Agrigento area.
Nothing is yet certain or has been established, but the idea of seeing an old dream, kept in a drawer for many years, come back into vogue has rekindled the hope of those who supported it at the time. He was also among those who supported him Carmelo Pace, now a member of the Ars, but already vice-president of the province when the first battles took place. “Mine – declared the DC exponent – I am absolutely positive evaluationsin the province we had reached the point of carrying out sensational protests. It’s an opportunity for development. Airports are the real bridges with which people move, not only in the tourism sector. Not having an airport means being cut off from international economic contexts“.
Its first traces date back to 2005, with the then governor Totò Cuffarowhen the Tourism Department of the Sicilian Region issued an integration of the implementation plan of the Regional Transport and Mobility Plan (decree number 163/GAB of 17 November 2004), inserting “the central-southern airport of Agrigento as an evolution of the demand for air transport of the airport as a tourist hub“. During his stay at Palazzo d’Orleans, the national secretary of the DC even went so far as to allocate 35 million euros there, considering it functional and essential for the development of the territory. In addition to sparking controversy from entrepreneurs and unions, Cuffaro also entered into full conflict with Enac, the National Civil Aviation Authority, and the then president Vito Riggio, who considered the existing infrastructure sufficient.
After a long battle against each other, nothing was done about it, except to return to the fore in recent months, with the push in the Chamber of Ida Carmina (M5s) and of Calogero Pisano (We Moderates) and the project presented by the extraordinary commissioner of the Free Consortium of the Municipalities of Agrigento Giovanni Bologna. Today we talk “of an economic-financial study for the construction of an airport serving the province of Agrigento and the central-southern area of Sicily, with a project that envisages a significant catchment area for a public work fundamental for the socio-economic relaunch of the territory“.
It still remains to be understood where the work will be built. In the past there have been many options under consideration, from Racalmuto plain to that of Licatabut anyway Agrigento airport would thus be the seventh in Sicilyafter Palermo, Catania, Trapani, Comiso, Lampedusa and Pantelleria. There is the risk of having too much territory”crowded“? For Pace the problem would not arise: “In Sicily we have to worry when there is something less. The strip of land where it should be born has no highways and a railway line, it is an area completely cut off“.
But then why has the construction of the infrastructure been postponed to a later date for twenty years now? The deputy is convinced: “The cost it would be equal to zero if it were built by private individuals, but even if it were financed with public resources we would still be talking about negligible figures. There are reasons other than economic ones, probably another airport in Sicily it would mean competition with the large airports in the region. For me one site is as good as another but these battles are worth fighting and trying“.
A challenge, therefore, with a thousand facets. Meanwhile considering the vast realities to which Agrigento is appearing after winning the title of Italian capital of culture for the year 2025. Despite the great initial enthusiasm, preparing the city in the best possible way did not prove to be at all simple, with difficulties and unobtainable meeting points. Such an important spotlight will give a lot of visibility to an area already with a great tourist vocation and which will certainly be able to continue to ride the wave in the following years. Then there is another aspect that would make the Agrigento airport an exception compared to its “brothers“. The opening towards one private management it would denote a step forward, in line with what is already happening in Italy. In Sicily the management of airports is still public, but the intentions stated by the political authorities, including President Schifani, seem to lead in a single direction: that of the private sector.
Tags: Development opportunity excluded area
