MILAN, Apr 14 (Class Editori) – Fiumicino airport launches three new air routes – due for operations from May and June – and becomes connected with 12 Chinese cities, getting ahead of Frankfurt in terms of number of destinations, and foreseeing over 1 million Chinese passengers to be traveling between the two countries by 2020. Rome airport, now third in the charts just after London (British Airways) and Paris (Air France), announced that the Air China flight toward Hangzhou due to start serving the route from June 12th, is soon to be followed by another two routes – the Hainan Airlines link toward Shenzhen, from May 30th, and the flight for Chengdu, provided by Sichuan Airlines. In particular, the latter will come in support of the Chongqing link and will work toward strengthening the Italian presence in a growing province, which importance in the business and the tourism realities is expanding fast.
"Launching three new destinations all at the same time gives an idea of what kind of work we've been doing with China during the last three years. We are reaping the benefits of the investments we've been making since 2014 – with Alipay services, with the Welcome China certification awarded for excellent Chinese travelers reception, with our presence on WeChat. During this period, the number of passengers went up 60%," noted Fausto Palombelli, chief commercial officer at Rome airport.
In 2018 the six airway companies active between Rome and Greater China topped up on passengers, totaling 760 thousands people and a growth of 60% against 2014. Now they are expecting a further boom in passenger numbers travelling to and from China, predicting a 20% increase in traffic during 2019, thus reaching well over 900 thousand people by the end of the year.
Atlantia, the subsidiary of the group led by Giovanni Castellucci, keeps looking at China with interest. In May, their delegation will be in Shanghai to take part in the ITB fair, and will host an event in Wenzhou together with Air China. The current political situation with Beijing is greatly contributing to the boost in relations, while all hopes are for the start of a cooperation aimed at unlocking bilateral travel and increased flight frequency.
Lately the Rome airport has also attracted the Chinese investors' attention, in particular thanks to the running plans for building a "business hub" next to the port. 13 companies sent a delegation to visit the Business City – announced in May – which, once completed with two new hotels, hopes to become a reference hub for conventions. The works will start this year, and the first four buildings should be completed between 2022 and 2023; the remaining three structures will open in 2024.
(Source:Class Editori)
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