Brescia Airport Expands International Flights and Plans New Routes

Waiting for full-time activity, the «D’Annunzio» airport warms up with international trips along routes to and from London and Tunis. The main players are the airlines. Every day, there are two flights to the English capital at bargain prices with Rayanair, and starting next Wednesday, there will be one weekly flight to the sunny beaches of Monastir with the tour operator «Bottega dei Viaggi» and the Tunisian airline Nouvelair. After the Brescia-based company Air Dolomiti decided not to continue flights to Rome, we are awaiting news on who will replace the «Leali» in domestic flights. Meanwhile, the pilgrimage season is about to begin: faithful are preparing their luggage for charter flights that in May will take them to Lourdes with Brevivet.

In the meantime, the managers of Catullo, the company managing Montichiari airport with a 10% Brescia shareholding, are not standing idly by. Through their president Fernando Sanson, they promise «great commitment to fulfill the forecast of 300,000 annual passengers by the end of 2001». This commitment is materializing through daily contacts with various airlines (Volare, Air Eagles, Meridiana, among others), not only to restore the Brescia – Rome line as soon as possible but also to plan new national routes (mainly islands and southern Italy), as well as international ones. A plan that prioritizes the freight sector and, thanks to the full relocation of military personnel from hangars in the airport area, will now allow for the design of extensive spaces in a facility already classified among the best in Europe by the Irer (Institute of Research of the Lombardy Region).

This is well known to the Brescia institutions («It’s time to draw up an operational plan for a new management company», insist the Province of Brescia and the Chamber of Commerce, partners of Brescia in Catullo), and also to Alitalia, which is interested in D’Annunzio through its subsidiary Volare and the Sea (operator of Malpensa and, through Sacbo, also of Bergamo), which is not hiding its ambitions for Montichiari. The national airline is ready to guarantee the withdrawal of the airport concession which the Ministry of Transport is expected to grant again to Catullo—or suspend—while waiting for the hoped-for new management company to finally take off. The Montichiari mayor, Gianantonio Rosa, is also optimistic. «I have no doubt that, one way or another, this standoff will be positively resolved for everyone», he notes, closely monitoring the situation daily with Antonio Realdi, director of the Montichiari airport.

While all issues are still being discussed, tomorrow night a charter flight will depart from D’Annunzio to Tunisia, organized by «Bottega dei Viaggi» in collaboration with Catullo, the Province, the Brescia Chamber of Commerce, the Brescia Tourism Promotion Agency, Municipality of Montichiari, Tunisian Tourism Authority, Nouvelair, and Brescia’s Publimax. The flight has been named «Eductour 2001» and will carry about fifty Brescians aboard the Tunisian Nouvelair Airbus—journalists, industrialists, and representatives of institutions, entities, and associations—who will later help D’Annunzio restore its prominence. The group of special travelers, coordinated by Brescia guides Marisa Fenotti, owner of «La Bottega dei Viaggi», will meet with local Chamber of Commerce representatives in Tunisia and visit archaeological and tourist attractions in the Monastir area, Port El Kantaoui, Sousse, and Mammamet. On the return scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, they will take on a promotional activity. The goal? To ensure the Nouvelair Airbus, departing every Wednesday, is always full of tourists. Until April 25, it is still possible to book a one-week stay in Sousse, Tunisia’s tourist capital, starting from 660,000 lire—all inclusive (flight, full board, drinks, Brescia guides, and on-site entertainment), with departure and return from Montichiari’s «D’Annunzio» airport.