Airways Magazine August 2024 | Page 35

AIRPORT REVIEW Florence
As the birthplace of the Renaissance , Florence ’ s combination of culture , art , and history is second to no other city in the world . The small city center encapsulates centuries of human achievement as the place where artists and poets like Leonardo and Dante produced some of their greatest works .
1 The Florence Peretola and Sesto Fiorentino areas , which should host FLR ’ s new runway .
MILLIONS VISIT THE CITY and its surroundings every year , making it one of the most popular destinations in Europe . The Tuscan capital welcomes tourists with everything they could wish for .
Except a suitable runway .
In 2023 , Florence ’ s Amerigo Vespucci Airport ( FLR ) welcomed 3.08 million passengers , an all-time record . Almost all of Europe ’ s legacy airlines fly to FLR , operating multiple daily flights from Paris , Amsterdam , and Munich , among other destinations .
The future could thus be expected to be bright , but FLR has always been mainly limited by its single runway . Local news has followed and reported the development of the airport ’ s runway for decades ; a long saga of politics , society , and developers repeatedly failing to reach any significant agreement on the airport ’ s future . While plans have been made , discarded , remade , and ignored , one thing is clear : the 05 / 23 runway represents the airport ’ s single largest bottleneck . The take-off run available , or TORA , is only 1,560m ( 5,180ft ). Not only does that limit the aircraft types that can safely
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