“Within a year the first major flights”

Enzo Viani, you are the president of the small Siena airport at Ampugnano, for which there are plans not just to expand but to revolutionise completely, so that it will become an airport to all effects and purposes. Are you sure it will make it?

“Well, we are thinking of starting the first major flights in about a year, to Linate and Frankfurt, the hubs from which flights go all over the world. This is only the start of an investment that is predicted to break even in nine years.”

How do you explain such a radical change in such a short time in an area such as Siena, Tuscany, where there is normally much controversy over decisions ?

“Behind this business there is the absolute need, on the part of the many important firms and of Mps but also of the entire local population, to move away from the tradition of isolation, although I would say that the spark was a special coincidence: the total community of intent among all the public partners of the airport, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Province, the local council, and the public partners with us. This is a fortunate moment - I have never witnessed such a degree of agreement in Tuscany. That is the secret.”

Yet might not the mayor of Sovicille, where the Ampugnano stopover is situated, worry about a project that envisages the lengthening the present small runway to almost four thousand metres?

“The mayor won’t put a stick in the spokes, provided, of course, that we take into account the needs of the area. First and foremost, the plan to lengthen the runway will be implemented in stages, and in continuous consultation with the administration of Sovicille. We will never move on to the successive step without the local inhabitants being able to see for themselves that it won’t cause them any disturbance. When we define the details of the project in the call for tenders that we have already published, we intend to stipulate irrevocable environmental conditions such as care of the aquifer, noise levels and pollution in general. The Galaxy Fund, which is willing to invest hundreds of millions of euros and has already written a project, has world wide expertise in airports and is sensitive to the demands of the environment. In any case, we will ask them to be even more mindful of these issues”.

Good. So at least you realise that the idea of turning this toy airport of Siena into perhaps the biggest airport in Tuscany has dropped like a bomb, upsetting the airport planning that the Region is elaborating?

“Look, when the system project was explained by Councillor Conti, we were enthusiastic about it, and were willing to participate in it at the cost of whatever sacrifice at local level. Then, as we all saw, the project never took off: indeed, at that same meeting we heard with our own ears that Pisa had absolutely no intention of taking part in it. What else could we do at this point but to proceed on our own? Above all, we have had the luck, or rather the cleverness, to find Galaxy - a reliable quasi-public foundation that is serious about investing – unlike what happened in Florence, where Benetton invested hardly anything, taking rather than giving. Here, the Foundation, Mps and public authorities are all willing to commit themselves and to collaborate with each other.”

Won’t you also be a threat to Florence, not to mention Pisa?

“Unfortunately, Adf, the Peretola company, has taken our project to be an act of aggression. I can guarantee that this is not the case, but I must say that although Adf was a shareholder of Siena airport company, it never showed any interest in the development of Ampugnano”

And now you will refuse any alliance whatsoever?

“Maybe that would be useful to both parties, but Florence is not interested and so the problem does not seem to exist”.

(i.c.)