(Finance) – With more 8 million passengers (8,079,479), the“Falcone Borsellino” international airport Of Palermo marks another record and archives 2023 as the best year ever. A closing with a bang, given that the increase in traffic (yesterday the ceiling of 8 million was exceeded) will be 13.84%, approximately one million passengers more than in 2022 (7,097,479), +15.45 % on 2019, and +7.53% of flights (55,953 against 52,037 in 2022). The average number of passengers per flight is 144. Very good traffic international: 30% of the total passengers (2,400,000 travellers).
According to projections for the month of Decemberover half a million passengers will pass through Falcone Borsellino (504,431), +12.15% compared to the same month of 2022 (449,790) and +3.08% (489,381) compared to 2019. The number of passengers is also growing flights: 3,727 against 3,173 in December 2022, with an increase of 17.46%.
“A good result – he says Vito RiggioCEO of Gesapthe management company of the Palermo airport – Now we need to continue with this step, improving services and productivity, to make the gateway to western Sicily more and more efficient and welcoming”.
2023 has been a year with different novelty, starting with the modernization works, which transformed the airport into a more spacious and welcoming environment, with new lounges for travellers, piers and facilities, shops, restaurants and bars. Over the next four years, Gesap has predicted 68 million investments (64 million were invested in the 2020/2023 period) – 252 million in ten years (2023/2033 development plan approved by Enac) – of which over one hundred committed in the 2023/2027 period. But it was also the year of the opening of the connection with Istanbul (Turkish) and the announcement of New York (Neos), starting from the next summer season.
“We must do even more and better – he says Savior Burrafato, president of Gesap – We are the business card for the millions of tourists and operators who arrive in Palermo. We are the first contact, the first experience with a land rich in charm, tradition and culture. Also about the culture of hospitality. Gesap’s mission is truly delicate: on a symbolic level but also on a concrete level, since any possibility of economic and social development of our territory is and will be conditioned by what Palermo airport manages to do”.