Lamezia Terme – “Rather than “everything is under control”. Far from accusations of useless alarmism or phantom parochialism. What we denounced just a few months ago is now put in black and white by the data published in recent days by the Italian Association of Airport Managers, data which all citizens can read on the specialist portal assaeroporti.com”. Thus, in a note, Rosario Piccioni, municipal councilor of “Lamezia Bene Comune” who intervenes regarding the data on airports. “Between January, February and March – highlights Piccioni – passenger traffic at Lamezia airport recorded a drop of more than 10%. And from the news circulating this trend of decline in passengers would also be confirmed for the month of April. Before going into the merits, especially considering that in the past someone who evidently has difficulty in understanding the meaning of some reflections accused me of parochialism, I would like to make a necessary premise: as a Calabrian I am the first to rejoice and be happy in seeing that the airports of Reggio Calabria and Crotone are growing and developing. I welcome a policy that makes the whole of Calabria “take off”, however, what I cannot accept and tolerate, as a simple citizen but above all as a representative of the institutions, is that the main airport of Calabria, which I remind the most forgetful of that Presidential Decree 201/2015 has included among the 12 Italian airports of particular strategic importance, has been so mistreated and neglected in recent years that it has reached the sad reality of today. The numbers speak clearly, are merciless and leave little room for second thoughts: the international airport of Lamezia Terme, which over the years had been characterized by an important and constant growth trend, due to the Occhiuto – Franchini management, for the first time marks the step, moreover in a worrying way losing 50,000 passengers in the first quarter of 2024 alone”.
According to the councilor of Lamezia Bene comune “All the statistical data points in the direction of making the international airport of Lamezia Terme a “seasonal” airport: in this sense the policy of Occhiuto and Franchini appears truly wicked because it is squandering not only a regional heritage but national. And then it really takes courage, as President Occhiuto is doing with the sole director Franchini, to suddenly remember, coincidentally on the eve of the European elections, the works at Lamezia airport complete with an inspection to be carried out immediately. on social media!!! The truth must be told to the citizens. What you see in the much-vaunted images is not the new airport that Lamezia has been waiting for for a long time passenger boarding which will be used to replace that “horrible hut” (Occhiuto’s own definition) that we have seen in recent years, but they have nothing to do with the real opportunity to relaunch Lamezia airport, which is instead the new terminal about which not much is known yet. But above all, a very serious thing, the works are very late because the “hot” season has already arrived and the works are not yet finished: initially Occhiuto himself had spoken of May, while today we are talking about the end of June”.
For Piccioni, “Occhiuto and Franchini, rather than making videos on social media, would do well to film among the airport merchants and listen to the cry of pain and suffering of the commercial activities that have been experiencing a situation of great difficulty for months now with a very heavy contraction of sales; and they would also do well to deal with the situation of the Sacal workers forced by the Franchini-led management into a militaristic regime of silence so as not to “disturb the operator” and in a climate of great tension with advance notices of dismissal and disciplinary proceedings in order of the day that they are creating an atmosphere that is irreconcilable with the carrying out of the work activity. We even understand that 2 workers were forced to withdraw the union membership card that they had recently signed up to. Not to mention the questionable selection procedure for the new Sales Director which due to its timing and characteristics makes one think of something tailor-made for someone. All this while all is silent from the Mascaro administration, as has been the case for nine years now! For the past two years, by Occhiuto’s clear will, Sacal has not had a board of directors that can make the weight of the various bodies involved in the management count but has placed all powers in the hands of a single administrator who answers only to president Occhiuto. And the Mascaro administration doesn’t say a word! Just as he doesn’t say a word about the difficulties of commercial activities and workers, about choices that are proving to be penalizing for Lamezia airport, about the delays in the new airport project… These are the results of the Forza Italia membership of the mayor, the deputy mayor, a councilor and several majority councillors? The ten years of Mascaro’s administration will be remembered, together with many other negative records, such as those of the administration which effectively reduced Lamezia’s weight in airport policy choices in Calabria to zero. Stop making fun of the citizens. Serious management – concludes the note – is capable of making all three Calabrian airports grow, each with its own peculiarities, without penalizing anyone. The Occhiuto council and the Sacal management, with the absence and guilty silence of Mascaro, are penalizing and causing numerous steps backwards to what, to date, as stated in Presidential Decree 201/2015 as well as the latest National Airport Plan, is the only Calabrian port of national strategic importance”.
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