By Vincenzo Claudio Piscopo
Rome Fiumicino Airport Renovates Terminal 1
A few days ago, the new Terminal 1 was inaugurated, with a capacity of 6 million passengers for domestic and Schengen destinations. Last year, boarding area A was inaugurated at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport, but the former boarding area C is also scheduled to open before the summer of 2023, and the renovation of the former pier D is scheduled to begin in the coming months.
The Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) Group, which operates both the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport at Fiumicino and the Giovan Battista Pastine Airport at Ciampino, both near Rome, was inaugurated in 1961, replacing Ciampino Airport, which remained in service only for domestic and charter flights. In 1991, Terminal 1 was inaugurated, which was closed in July 2020 due to the effects of Covid-19 on air traffic. In October 2022, its renovation began, with the aim of optimizing the operational space and increasing the overall comfort of the terminal.
The new area covers nearly 25000 square meters and was built without excavating or increasing the existing infrastructure by reusing construction materials. The departures area is equipped with 22 gates, more than half of which are equipped with jet bridges, 12 new loading bridges for direct boarding of aircraft, 44 self-boarding gates, as well as digital columns integrated into the structures. A new baggage handling system has been installed in the arrivals area, with 3 new baggage reclaim carousels for additional capacity for an additional 3 million passengers per year.
This is just the latest achievement of Rome’s airport, as there is a major investment program of about 10 billion euros ($11bn) until 2046, of which 2.5 billion have already been implemented. These renovations and improvements are also being carried out with a view to the next major international events, such as the Jubilee in 2025.
All the renovation, design and development work is “Made in Italy”, carried out by the ADR Group’s team of architects and engineers using the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology, and has involved all the structural and plant components of the terminal, with the aim of maximizing the spaces dedicated to passengers and facilitating their orientation within the airport. Passengers will now be able to scan a QR code placed on the LED walls of the boarding gates and listen to a guide to their destination, with interesting facts and places to visit, which can also be downloaded and listened to during the flight. These audio guides are created by Chora Media, an Italian storytelling company founded in 2020 with the aim of spreading news, history and art through different series of themed podcasts.
The inauguration was attended by ADR Group President Claudio De Vincenti and ADR Group CEO Marco Troncone. Also present, given the importance of the event, were the Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation, Matteo Salvini, the Undersecretary of Culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, the President of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), Pierluigi Di Palma, the CEO of ITA Airways, Fabio Lazzerini, the President of the Lazio Region, Francesco Rocca, the Mayor of the City of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, the Deputy Mayor of Fiumicino, Ezio di Genesio Pagliuca, and Prefect Fabrizio Gallo, Director of the Fund for Religious Buildings of the Italian Ministry of the Interior.
Vincenzo graduated in 2019 in Mechanical Engineering with an aeronautical curriculum, focusing his thesis on Human Factors in aircraft maintenance. In 2022 he pursued his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Palermo, Italy. He combines his journalistic activities with his work as a Reliability Engineer at Zetalab.
