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As Rome's Fiumicino burns, fashion capital Milan could benefit. Alitalia is left with a hub dilemma

Analysis

On 07-May-2015 Rome's Fiumicino-Leonardo da Vinci Airport, the principal airport for the Italian capital and home base of Alitalia, had to be closed down following a serious fire in Terminal 3, which broke out in a coffee shop. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, leading to chaos and confusion amongst passengers as entry was denied to all terminals.

As the crews of 15 fire engines fought to bring it under control the inferno destroyed several passport control cabins and the main commercial zone, including a large area of Duty Free shops. Fortunately there were no direct casualties but shortly after the fire was finally extinguished concerns began to be raised about health and safety issues. Those concerns continue despite action taken by the management of Aeroporti di Roma (AdR) and the Civil Aviation Authority, ENAC, initially to scale down operations to 60% of overall capacity.

Indeed, the fire managed to open a can of worms concerning the overall state of the Fiumicino infrastructure, its suitability to handle large numbers of passengers now and in the future, and whether or not it should even serve as the nation's primary, showpiece, air gateway, despite a massive planned expansion programme.

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