Ryanair has urged the Italian government to allow for more flights to land at and depart from Rome’s Ciampino Airport next year.
Currently, Ciampino is limited to a maximum of 65 flights per day – or 4 flights per hour.
Ryanair wants 130 daily flights permitted through Ciampino.
Ryanair’s call for a 2025 passenger cap lift would coincide with next year’s Rome Jubilee/Holy year, which will see thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims descend on the city for religious pilgrimages.
Ryanair has argued that other EU capitals – such as Brussels, Paris and London – benefit from two or more airports, without such limits, which allow airlines to increase capacity and tourism using secondary airports such as Ciampino.
Ryanair said the Italian government is also hurting employment and tourism growth in Italy with its municipal surcharge, which – it claims – is making air travel to Italy more expensive than to other EU tourist destinations including Spain, Portugal and Greece.
Ryanair’s Group CEO, Michael O’Leary, said: “As Italy’s number one airline, Ryanair is calling on the Meloni Government to raise the limit of flights to Ciampino from 65 to 130 daily flights and allow Ryanair to rapidly increase visitors to Rome for the 2025 jubilee year. It is shameful that the growth of visitors to one of the main European cities such as Rome is currently hampered by the Ciampino limit of 65 flights per day, which puts Rome’s growth for the 2025 jubilee year at risk.
“Ryanair is calling on the Government to double Ciampino’s daily movements to 130 flights – only 8 flights per hour – to increase traffic, employment and tourism in Rome, especially when these flights are operated by Ryanair’s new and quiet Boeing B737-8200 Gamechangers.
“Ryanair is also asking the government to abolish the regressive municipal surcharge, just as the Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Calabria regions have already done in 2024. All Italian airports could enjoy rapid growth in traffic and visitors in the coming years if the Italian state abolishes the municipal surcharge, Ryanair would respond with an investment of $4 billion in Italy, adding 40 new aircraft, over 20 million passengers per year on 250 new routes and 1,500 new Ryanair jobs in the Italian regions.”
