A setback for Brescia, especially for the “Brescia system” which, despite debates and proclamations, has never actually managed to get its airport off the ground. The Council of the European Union has effectively excluded the airport “Gabriele d’Annunzio” by Montichiari come on “Ten-t corridors”, Trans European Network-Transport, representing the transport network of the European Union. In approving the new regulations, Brussels excluded Montichiari airport from the 11 “core” airports, i.e. the most important ones for transnational mobility, and from the 22 comprehensive ones (airports of interest for international travel). .
The airports of instead have entered the comprehensives Perugia, Rimini and the island of Elba. Montichiari’s numbers were evidently too low. The latest data published by Assoaeroporti, relating to April 2024, speak of 745 passengers (+12.7% compared to 2023) and 2287 tonnes for cargo (-4.1%), the airport’s vocation.
The exclusion, in fact, means that Montichiari will not be able to access the tenders of the Connecting Europe Facility Programme, 40 billion euros for the development of the corridors of the European Union.
“The news regarding the fact that the European Union has downgraded the Montichiari airport leaves the Brescia system dismayed – commented the president of the Province of Brescia, Emanuele Moraschini -. We have been working for years to ensure that this structure is valorised and now we learn that it will no longer receive funding. We are in Lombardy, one of Italy’s engines, where there are three other airports that are collapsing. Montichiari is strategic, could also be applied to passengers, not just goods. It is close to Garda, one of the most important tourist destinations in Italy; it would bring economy and development to an already active, lively, dynamic province. It would create jobs. I appeal to the newly elected European Parliamentarians from Brescia to intervene to support the Brescia system and to relaunch this airport, which deserves to be at the center of active and concrete policies”.
