by Anna Marchetti
“The concrete runway increases the safety of landings and take-offs. Just as Anas invests to improve road conditions, Enac does the same for airports”. Massimo Ruggeri, sole director of Fanum Fortunae, protagonist of the airport company’s redevelopment, supports the Serfilippi administration’s choice to invest in the Fano airport. The mayor reconfirmed this commitment yesterday afternoon in the meeting organized to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Eagles Aviation Academy flight school and to inaugurate the propeller of a B17 (a plane from the Second World War) recovered three years ago by Fano sailors, off the coast of Ancona and donated to the Fano Aero Club: now placed at the entrance to the airport.
Yesterday’s meeting was also the occasion to announce the organization of the Vector Festival between July 2nd and 6th, an important skydiving initiative that will bring a thousand people, including pilots and their families, to Fano. “With the inauguration of the propeller – commented Serfilippi – we are creating a connection between 2 fundamental infrastructures for the city, such as the port and the airport”. The mayor also entrusted the specific delegation of the airport to the deputy mayor Loretta Manocchi: “An expression of our commitment to the Fano structure”. All the subjects that “animate” the airport, present at the meeting yesterday, wanted to focus attention on the importance from an economic and tourist point of view of creating “a living reality”, as defined by the president of the Aeroclub Carlo Durante, at the service of the entire provincial territory. Davide Cecchini, CEO and owner of Eagles Aviation Academy, emphasized the uniqueness of his flight school: “We are not a ‘pilot factory’, but we train professional pilots by following their human path at the end of which they are ready to be hired by the main airlines”. “A huge job market,” commented flight instructor Stefano Mascioni, “up until 2030 it is estimated that the demand will be 600 thousand pilots worldwide, of which 230 thousand in Europe alone. Not to mention the aeronautical technicians, there is not one who stays at home”. In order to proceed with the concrete runway, the Municipality must cede to ENAC – the administration thinks it can do it free of charge – the land it owns that is in the airport area”.
Once this step has been completed – the municipal offices have been given the mandate to proceed – Enac will be able to invest in the track. “The national body for civil aviation – assured parliamentarian Antonio Baldelli (Brothers of Italy) – is ready to entrust Fanum Fortunae with airport management”. In short, if the institutional ‘supply chain’ will work (the Municipality, Region and Government are all centre-right and the infrastructure minister is the Northern League member Matteo Salvini of the same party as Serfilippi), on whose added value the mayor insisted during the election campaign, Fano after decades of waiting and postponements could have the concrete track. Meanwhile, Ruggeri highlights the climate of collaboration that has been created between the various entities that operate at the airport. “Compared to the past – he comments – conditions have changed profoundly”.
