The date to mark in red for Pisa airport is July 22nd when the construction site that will revolutionize the airport will finally open. This is the date announced yesterday by the CEO of Toscana Aeroporti, Roberto Naldi, to start the complete transformation of the Pisan airport as we have known it up to now. In the next 27/28 months, with three distinct phases of work, the new terminal will be built, capable of flying at least 6-7 million passengers per year to Pisa with a total investment of 70 million euros.
“After the preparatory works of recent months – explained Naldi – the actual intervention can now begin which will be developed in three phases to ensure that airport operations are never hindered by construction site activities. Once the works have been completed, the surface of the terminal will go from 39,500 to 50,600 square meters (+28%) and the works will be carried out in-house by the subsidiary Toscana airport Costruzioni, combining the expected growth in air traffic with the offer of high services, improving the management of passenger flows arriving and departing”.
The first phase, estimated to last approximately one year, involves the construction of a new 7,100 m2 building intended to accommodate arrivals on the ground floor while maintaining airport operations during the works phase. The second will last 11 months, during which the current arrivals terminal (approximately 6,700 m2) will be renovated and at the same time the first floor of the airport will be renovated (1,580 m2), creating a new vertical connection, a VIP room and a reception hall. passport control and which will become the departure operations space.
The last phase (4/5 months) will serve to renovate the departures terminal (approximately 3,680 m2) and at the same time the current passport control sector will be eliminated on the first floor, expanding the non-Schengen boarding hall. “It is an ambitious intervention – observed Naldi – with a strong focus on sustainability and technological innovation”. And the mayor Michele Conti welcomed with satisfaction the start of the actual construction site “because it will allow our terminal to finally be adapted to the traffic of the main airport in Tuscany: we only ask the company to respect the scheduled times”.
For the governor Eugenio Giani “the works will be the viaticum for the strengthening of the Fi-Pi-Li but I also expect an adaptation of the railway line between Pisa and Florence – he explains – Like the mayor, I too am focused on the deadlines of the timetable indicated by the company airport: an important investment that will allow the Tuscan airport system to grow in harmony between Pisa and Florence”. While FdI regional councilor Diego Petrucci asked Toscana Aeroporti “to start, once the new terminal is completed, the exploratory hypothesis of finally transforming the ‘Galilei’ into an intercontinental airport”. But to get traffic to take off, something else will also be needed. Naldi is convinced of this: “The presence of greater rail connections could contribute to giving an important boost. Fast trains that connect the city to Florence at dawn, at night and some even during the day, because, with all due respect for commuters , we believe that even during the daytime some trains could be scheduled, three or four, to make one or at most two stops on the Pisa-Florence route, but so far the railways are reluctant”. Giani tried to lend a hand to society by “also promising the Region’s commitment” while specifying that “the national government and, in particular the infrastructure minister Matteo Salvini, must also do his part in this”.
