Forlì puts its wings back. It took 8 years for the restart, but Luigi Ridolfi airport, subject to a profound restyling, returns to review the first commercial flight after a long stop. The opportunity was at 9.30 pm with the arrival of the Ego Airways aircraft, the Embraer 190 which covers the Catania-Forlì line. The plane was made to wait, arrived half an hour late, and left around 22.25 to return to Sicily with about fifty travelers headed to the island, not before being celebrated with the “water cannon”.
VIDEO – The first passenger and the arrival in the “water tunnel”
VIDEO – The mayor: “The rebirth of the economy is marked”
The wait was tempered with the cutting of the cake and the toast to celebrate the full operation of the airport. An operation that is anything but obvious: the “Ridolfi”, in fact, has left in full “red zone”, at a time when it is necessary to have self-certification in your pocket to get to Forlimpopoli, let alone in Sicily. The saddest page of the “Luigi Ridolfi” airport was written on 29 March 2013, when the last commercial flight took off from via Seganti: Wizz Air company, destination Cluj-Napoca. 2924 days after the mercurial airport, it resumed with the management of Forlì Airport.
“We do our competition – explains an excited president of ‘FA’ Giuseppe Silvestrini -. We have a refurbished airport, home to flight schools, universities, advanced technology, which aims to become a European center for training and maintenance, to which passengers are added to develop many opportunities with tour operators and operators of the coast “. Adds the mayor Gian Luca Zattini for his part: “In the future I expect to see some tourists in our Saffi square before taking flight, to enjoy the beauty of San Mercuriale and the exhibitions of San Domenico”.
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And on Wednesday there is an encore: in the early morning it is the turn of the route with Palermo, of the Lumiwings company, departing from via Seganti at 8.40 and returning to Forlì at 12.25. Several stages that have relaunched the city airport, the most important on 6 May 2020, when Enac delivered the “Airport Certificate”, the last administrative act to complete the Ridolfi certification procedure. The covid-19 pandemic has slowed down programming, but in the meantime the airport has already been exploited by two Serie A football teams, the Juventus on Cristiano Ronaldo e the Lazio of Ciro Immobile, landed in Romagna as committed to the Manuzzi of Cesena for the championship matches against Spezia.
Before the arrival of the flight, Giuseppe Silvestrini, President of FA, and Matteo Bonecchi, CEO of the Milanese airline, cut a celebratory cake dominated by the logos of both companies. To welcome the arrival of the plane there was then the evocative water cannon of the firefighters, a jet of water that baptized the first landing of the airline at the Forlì airport. FA also paid homage to the first passenger boarding at check-in, Giuseppe Cilia di Ragusa, and the first to land at Ridolfi with a celebratory parchment. Giuseppa Salvagno born in Sicily, but living in Forlì.
“And yet we fly! – declares Giuseppe Silvestrini President of FA srl, quoting the historical phrase of Galileo Galilei -. Today is an epochal day for the whole of Romagna which regains a window on the world. It was the achievement of a result obtained thanks to the commitment of the members and all the employees of FA, who never gave up even in the face of the many obstacles we had to overcome. The first flight, in addition to being a very exciting moment, is the beginning of a new adventure that will bring the Forlì airport back to being strategic at an Italian, European and world level. I thank Ego Airways for having believed in our project and for having chosen important destinations such as Catania, which has always been requested by entrepreneurs and the whole territory in order to comfortably reach Sicily from Romagna “.
“A new airline for a hub that is finally back to full operation – says Marco Busca, president of Ego Airways -: it was a double debut, full of emotion, what we witnessed today on the runway of the” Ridolfi “airport in Forlì. As president of EGO Airways, I am convinced that great things will come from this partnership, created thanks to the commitment of two young, dynamic and promising companies. On the one hand, Ego Airways is very happy to bring its brand to this slice of Romagna. On the other hand, we are confident that, with our flight operations – Forlì will soon be directly connected to Catania, Bari, Brindisi, Lamezia Terme, Olbia, Cagliari, Ibiza and Mykonos – we will give new impulses to both business travelers and travelers. who can’t wait to start exploring Italy and Europe again “.
Forlì Airport has made 23 destinations available to travelers. With Ego Airways you will fly to Ibiza, Mykonos Olbia-Costa Smeralda, Catania, Lamezia Terme, Bari, Brindisi and Cagliari. Lumiwings will provide other Italian and European destinations: Trapani, Palermo, Rhodes, Corfu, Kefalonia (Greece), Katowice and Lodz in Poland, Prague, Odessa (Ukraine), Craiova and Arad (Romania). With Air Horizont Forlì will be connected with Budapest, Bilbao and Hamburg, while with Air Dolomiti, it will take off to Munich (3 May). The connections with the tourist islands will start from June.
VIDEO – Juventus lands in Forlì
VIDEO – Special toast at Ridolfi
VIDEO – The arrival of Lazio and the enthusiasm of the fans
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