Social and Economic Impact

In 2025, Rome Fiumicino Airport recorded over 51 million passengers for the first time in a single year, confirming its role as a strategic hub for Italy’s international connectivity. Today, an airport community of around 50,000 people operates around the airport, including more than 4,500 direct employees of Aeroporti di Roma, alongside airlines, ground handling companies, security operators, and businesses in retail, catering and passenger services.

To analyse in a structured manner the economic and social role of this infrastructure — crucial to the national economy — and to assess the long-term effects of its growth, the 'Franco Fontana Centre for Research in Strategic Change at LUISS Guido Carli' carried out a study dedicated to the Leonardo da Vinci Airport's Sustainable Development Plan.

Added value generated by the construction, management and catalytic phase (tourism) of the FCO Master Plan

(millions of €)

The research, led by Professors Enzo Peruffo and Alberto Petrucci, assesses the effects of the Masterplan across three phases: the construction of the infrastructure, the operational management of the airport and the ‘catalytic’ phase - i.e. the growth of international passengers' traffic and the long-term development of tourism.

According to the study’s estimates, the Plan could generate around €70 billion in added value for the Italian economy and create a total of approximately 300,000 new jobs across the country. The local economic impact would also be particularly significant: €18 billion in added value in Lazio with over 67,000 new jobs - of which €14 billion in the Province of Rome with around 53,000 new jobs and €5 billion in the Municipality of Fiumicino with around 13,500 new jobs.

Jobs related to the construction, management and catalytic phase (tourism) of the FCO Master Plan

(job positions)

The research also highlights the positive effects on international trade and the competitiveness of the national economy, estimating an additional contribution to national income of between 0.54% and 0.98% of GDP. Finally, the analysis emphasises the ‘cost of inaction’: every year of delay in implementing the plan would result in an estimated loss of around €2 billion for the national economy.