Catania airport surpasses 10mln passengers and returns to pre-pandemic levels

SAC announces that today, Wednesday, Dec. 28, Catania Airport passed the The ten million passengers transited through the airport during 2022, thus equaling the figure for 2019, the last year of normalcy before the Covid emergency.

In the area in front of the company's check-in counters. ITA Airways the 10 millionth passenger of 2022 was honored: Ms. Isabella, a Rosolini resident, who received a complimentary ticket from the airline's CEO Fabio Lazzerini, SAC President Giovanna Candura and CEO Nico Torrisi. Meanwhile, artist Totò Calì made a symbolic portrait of the lucky traveler that will be displayed in the airport as a memento of the event.

"This is an unexpected result that rewards the great work done during these difficult years during which the commercial aviation sector was certainly among the hardest hit. Three years of pandemic and restrictions on travel, especially international travel, which are now fortunately behind us, have put the resilience of the airports to the test. But we have all shown that we are able to cope with enormous difficulties without ever losing sight of our goals: those of allowing passengers to fly in safety and serenity, guaranteeing and improving airport services and doing our part both to ensure mobility for Sicilians -as well as to all domestic destinations, also to Europe, Africa and the Middle East- and to foster the growth of tourism in our Region, which the data confirm is increasingly attractive.

The qualification of "Hub of the Mediterranean" that ENAC has allocated to us is nothing but a spur to do better and better to consolidate our role as a strategic airport for the entire Mediterranean basin, as well as for the European destinations already served for years and which we are further increasing. Our thanks go to passengers, airlines, airport employees and collaborators, handling companies, government agencies and law enforcement agencies."- Giovanna Candura and Nico Torrisi commented..

"To have reached 10 million passengers today means having overcome the period related to the pandemic, and this testifies to how quickly the national airport system knows how to recover even from unexpected and highly impactful events. We thank SAC and the president of the region for also giving a strong signal with respect to the needs of Sicilians and the right to mobility, a principle that must be strenuously defended and that only air links can guarantee effectively and continuously"-they said Pierluigi Di Palma and Alessio Quaranta, ENAC president and director general, respectively..

"The milestone reached today is a source of pride: Catania airport is one of the most important airports in Italy and we are very satisfied with this. It is our responsibility to work even harder to make it possible, in synergy with the national government, to increase the number of flights so that Sicilians can travel at affordable prices and tourists can reach our island more easily," - said Gaetano Galvagno, President of the Sicilian Regional Assembly 

"Catania Airport has overcome the pandemic, returning to 2019 growth levels. A figure that allows us to look to the future with renewed optimism. The Region has already done its part on infrastructure, first pushing for the construction of the "Fontanarossa" station and recently giving the green light to the project for the burying of the railway that will allow the runway to be lengthened. The "Vincenzo Bellini," together with Comiso airport, can be in its own right a Hub of the Mediterranean, acting as a flywheel for the economy of all of eastern Sicily. Soon there will be the challenge of privatization, and the regional government will continue to support the development of the airport system in the interest of all citizens, with great attention to services, efficiency and competition among carriers. Sicilians have the right to fly without being forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money. A scandalous affair on which our complaint to the Antitrust Authority has been heard." - stated Renato Schifani, President of the Sicilian Region