The sublime Amalfi Coast, its dream hotels and its many gems will soon be much more accessible to certain French travelers.
A key airport will indeed soon reopen its runways and this is a boon for travelers who until now had to transit through Naples.
The Salerno – Amalfi Coast (QSR) platform will indeed resume service in July 2024. But if it will be possible to reach it from France, it will only be from Nantes.
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Tickets are already on sale for the first Salerno-Nantes flight which will take place on July 11, 2024 and will be operated by the Spanish low-cost Volotea.
On July 13, another plane from the airline is due to fly to Cagliari, in Sardinia.
These routes will be served every two weeks, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, says TTG Italia.
And these will not be the only connections supported by Salerno airport, which is becoming a small national hub: other flights will be destined for Catania, in Sicily, and Verona, in Veneto.
For them, the kickoff will be given on September 2, 2024. Here too, two trips per week, Mondays and Fridays, are planned.
At the moment, only Volotea has confirmed that it will operate connections to and from the airport located 21 kilometers from the city of Salerno.
Ultimately, it is expected that several airlines will operate there.
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A brand new terminal with a futuristic look
The Salerno – Amalfi Coast Airport must relieve pressure on Naples Airport, which saw 12.4 million passengers pass through in 2023. Although its inauguration date has been confirmed, work on the infrastructure will not be completed by July.
The only pre-existing runway has been extended to 2000 meters but the Naples airport website specifies that other projects are still underway and that the airport will reach full operation by 2026 or 2027.
Access infrastructure will be redesigned: the connection with the motorway will be improved and the Salerno metro will eventually connect the airport.
And a brand new terminal with a futuristic look is to be built on two floors: it will measure 16,000 square meters.
On the dedicated Archilovers site, the teams responsible for the renovation and expansion of the airport have published photos of the project.
In its first configuration, the airport will accommodate up to 3.3 million passengers, according to Nuova Irpinia.
The works are planned to last until at least 2043, when Salerno – Amalfi Coast hopes to welcome six million passengers per year.
Until the end of the work, existing structures will be used.
The airport is almost a century old
Because the said airport is not brand new: it was founded in 1926 by the Italian Air Force and was, until 2007, exclusively reserved for military use.
It was then adapted to accommodate civilian traffic: two boarding areas, four check-in counters, baggage conveyors and waiting rooms had been installed there, and the length of its single runway had been extended.
In 2016, the airport closed its doors.
It will be necessary to wait until 2020 for construction work on the new runway and demining of war munitions to begin, with a view to its reopening in 2024.