Passenger boom at Fiumicino and AdR runs for cover: '1,000sqm of new lounges by year'

In 2024, Rome Fiumicino experienced its best year ever, touching the 50 million passengers and recording his record number of passengers in a single day, with about 180 thousand. It was, also, among the top 100 European airports by recorded traffic, the one that has grown by far the most since 2023: +21, 3%. Translated, it 'processed' more than a fifth more passengers in 2024 than in the previous 12 months.

Science fiction stuff. And stuff, it must be said, from Seriously put the airport infrastructure to the test., as confirmed to The Flight Club by the Chief Aviation Officer (CAO) of Aeroporti di Roma (AdR), Ivan Bassato.

"There have been days and there are times of day when the airport infrastructure sees passenger flow close to its capacity, that is, a flux approaching capacitive maxima." This, it should be emphasized, nn spite of the fact that ADR over the past decade has considerably expanded the terminal complex at the 'Leonardo Da Vinci'.

Among the infrastructure that has been developed is. the lounge system (net of those of individual airlines) accessible for a fee or with one of the cards such as Priority Pass and Dragonpass. There are five at Fiumicino today: a  Plaza Premium, a PrimeClass and a First Vista in Terminal 1's Boarding Aera, as well as a second Premium Plaza (Awarded last year as the world's best independent lounge at the Skywards Awards) and a second First View In the boarding area E (non-Schengen) of Terminal 3.

"Relative to lounges, we recorded a marked 'step change' which, I must admit, we had not anticipated, at least in these proportions, when we thought about those spaces. In recent times, there is a much higher number of people accessing them than in recent years," Bassato explains.

The Flight Club has repeatedly been able to experience firsthand how, especially during 'peak' times, those spaces are insufficient, experiencing long waits for entry or failing to enter at all before the flight was called for boarding. And the CAO admits that ADR has sometimes received a few isolated complaints from disgruntled passengers (despite Fiumicino is one of Europe's highest rated airports).

A 'mole' that the company that manages Rome's two airports (in addition to Fiumicino and Ciampino) is already remedying, to meet demand: "We have moved to activate new lounges, particularly in the Schengen area, where we are planning, as early as the second half of 2025, to augment current offerings with more than a thousand square meters of new space, including extensions of existing rooms and new openings.

The new spaces will also diversify the offerings, expanding the range of products and services aimed at a 'premium' target," Bassato points out, adding that "in a few weeks we will be able to provide the details of this 'upgrade,' and in the next 24 months we will see interesting things."