This came up yesterday:
Dear friends of Elba Airport,
first of all, we would like to thank you for your continued support throughout the years, for your constant and professional collaboration and for having contributed to the economic development of our company.
It is therefore appropriate to inform you the situation which Elba airport faces.
As many of you know, Alatoscana is a joint-stock company. The two major shareholders, Toscana Region and Toscana Airports, have expressed their willingness to improve the airport of Marina di Campo by expanding the runway. It consists of 300 m, 250 m at the North and 50 m at the South. The development is crucial because, at the moment, the whole facility is no longer economically feasible.
Unfortunately, the government of Marina di Campo has not given a positive response yet which implies the risk of resignation of Toscana Region and Toscana Airports. If this happens, the airport will cease to operate in few months.
At this point, being aware of the importance the airport has for each of you, we are confident that you will support it once again by writing to the local authorities and the local press. We have to highlight the advantages and the importance that the airport has to Elba Island and the benefits that we and the next generations will obtain from the improvement of this crucial service.
Your point of view has to be taken into consideration and has to be evaluated as a determinative factor that must contributes to the final choice.
We hope to give you good news and to see you soon at the airport.
Kind regards,
Elba Airport
Here you are the mayors’ e-mail addresses:
Davide Montauti – Campo Elba <[email protected]>
sindaco <[email protected]>
[email protected] <[email protected]>
[email protected]
[email protected] <[email protected]>
[email protected]
[email protected]
I’m not sure how much an email in English will help, but everybody can decide himself.
Edit: I learned that there is an online petition here that one can sign. Do it if you haven’t yet 🙂
It consists of 300 m, 250 m at the North and 50 m at the South. The development is crucial because, at the moment, the whole facility is no longer economically feasible.
Does anyone know how this happened, and what the extra 300m would do?
No idea. The EASA rules on runway requirements have not changed for a few years now. (If course, it might be that the Italian CAA has recently changed some „interpretation“ of the regs… this is always a possibility, particularly in countries like Italy).
But in all likelyhood, if the airport is not economically feasible, then it has not been for years.
Mind you, most regional and island airports with short runways have NEVER been economically feasible, and never will be. It‘s an infrastructure. Therefire, saying that it might have to close because it is no longer economically feasible sounds a bit odd.
Could the extra 300 meters bring more commercial traffic? Like medium sized jets? Would this be welcomed by the islanders?
I think there’s more to it than the eye can see..
UdoR wrote:
Could the extra 300 meters bring more commercial traffic? Like medium sized jets? Would this be welcomed by the islanders?
I think that could mean the difference between the PART-NCx and PART-CAT margin, so the charter aircraft could use it and not just personal and corporate a/c.
I learned that there is an online petition here that one can sign
I have done the petition, I will send an email
My immediate reaction was (apart from being sad to hear it – since it brings nice memories) exactly what Bosco writes above.
IOW, what has happened is that some bean counter (accountant) in some local govt / chamber of commerce has just woken up, after writing cheques while sleeping for a few decades.
Elba has always had the most expensive avgas this side of Greece, causing people to either avoid it or refuel on the way there or back. I don’t know why; I am sure Italy is able to buy avgas for the same price as anyone else, so this was some kind of “interesting Italian business” going on.
This stuff would not have helped. Especially with all the publicity in Europe’s biggest GA community that is just “up the road” from Italy.
Does the mayor really have seven email addresses?
I am all in favour of supporting this, obviously.
Hm… current 950 m plus 300 m will result with 1250 m. This should be ok for CJ4 and ATR 72 but not for Dash 8 Q400. That could be a difference comparing to current situation, bringing some additional traffic.
Maybe for charter, yes. Otherwise, a CJ4 operates fine from EGKA. I had a flight in it. Takeoff run and landing roll are about 300-400m.
Looking at the satellite imagery it seems to me that extending the runway to the north would mean that a street needs to be relocated or closed. Towards the south there is some free space, even if some houses there are getting pretty close.
If it goes as it went here with Bolzano, then asking the local council or population will always give a negative result. I hope the best for them but still, might not be that easy…
