The new runway project at Florence airport – awaited for 30 years to improve flight safety and increase passenger traffic – took a significant step forward towards the start of work. The Via-Vas decision was published today, November 12, which contains an environmental impact analysis and strategic environmental assessment of the work. The decree contains 14 provisions from the Ministry of the Environment and 11 from the Ministry of Culture, which must now be implemented by Toscana Aeroporti, the airport management company.
«We are satisfied», said the manager, citing a passage from the opinion of the Via Commission, which states that «the preventive, mitigating and compensatory measures described by the proponent are overall effective and efficient to adequately contain and mitigate the impacts generated by the Master Plan».
Now the services conference will unveil final authorization for the construction of a 2,200 meter long runway (and almost parallel to the A11 motorway, whereas the current runway is perpendicular) and a new terminal, intended to increase traffic from last year’s 3.5 million passengers to almost 6 million. The investment will exceed 400 million euros with public funding of around 150 million euros, allocated several years ago. However, the road to the start of work, due to the economic category, is not easy: the citizens’ committee and the municipality of the Florentine plain, which had already won the appeal to the TAR and the Council of State against the previous runway project (2,400 meters long and rotated 90 degrees) in 2019-2020, have announced a new application. The mayor of Sesto Fiorentino, Lorenzo Falchi, defined it as a “wrong and impactful work”, announcing the call as one of his last acts as mayor, considering that he had been a member of the regional council and was part of the coalition of president Eugenio Giani (Pd), which instead supported the new line.
The president of Toscana Aeroporti, Marco Carrai, has made it clear in recent days that, after the decision on Via-Vas, a notification to expropriate the land must be issued, state aid must be communicated to the EU, a merits conference must be held that will end “at the end of spring, and then work on the runway will start in June”.
Meanwhile, the Florentine airport ‘Amerigo Vespucci’ has strengthened its collaboration with the low-cost airline Volotea, which from September 2026 will base its second aircraft in Florence, an Airbus 319 costing 55 million euros, destined to bring four new routes – Seville, Valencia, Strasbourg and Berlin – and around forty new direct jobs, double the current ones.
