Fiumicino, 17 May 2017 – The “Open Day at Leonardo da Vinci” starts today. This schedule of guided tours and events, running until November, will enable high school students to learn about and visit the major Italian airport, experiencing airport life live and coming into contact with industry professionals. The initiative, organised by Aeroporti di Roma, in partnership with ENAC (Italian Civil Aviation Authority), intends to bring high school students closer to the large airport world, opening the doors for them into the Fiumicino Terminals and giving them the opportunity to become, for one day, a real airport technician.

The project is part of the activities already implemented by ADR to consolidate the relationship between the airport community, its workers and schools in the Rome area. In addition to the “Open Days”, the school-work professional training initiative and the “Navigare il territorio” project are also underway, enabling several thousands of students to visit the historic Trajan Archaeological Park.

The Open Day schedule – which can be consulted on the ADR website, where there is also a form for submitting participation applications – is open to all high schools, starting with those of the region.

Today’s first visit, which was attended by approximately one hundred students from the Leonardo da Vinci Institute in the Maccarese, started with a meeting between the young people and the Terminal Manager of new international boarding area E. The Terminal Manager is responsible for overseeing all airport activities, within his area of competence, checking the cleanliness of the areas, ensuring the functionality and availability of the infrastructure and thus taking care of the overall image of the air terminal. Later on, the students learnt how assistance for passengers with reduced mobility is performed, an important operational task entrusted to ADR Assistance staff within the capital’s airports. 

The educational tour ended on board a vehicle piloted by “SAR”, namely, a yellow safety vehicle that operates on the runway. On board the vehicle, authorised to cross the airport over all its services, the students were able to see the aircraft movements on runway up close, observing all activities that the SAR staff carry out on a daily basis. The safety of the runways depends on these individuals, who constantly inspect the runways and taxiways. The SAR are also in constant contact with the Control Tower, communicating with the pilot to move vehicles on the taxiways.

Before leaving the airport, the students finally participated in a role play on airport professions and visited the new Airport Mall in Boarding Area E, a 90,000 m₂ infrastructure for Non-Schengen flights, one of the most advanced in Europe.

Aeroporti di Roma, an Atlantia Group company, manages and develops the airports of Rome Fiumicino and Ciampino and carries out other activities related and complementary to airport management. Fiumicino operates through four passenger terminals. It is dedicated to business and leisure customers on national, international and intercontinental routes; Ciampino is mainly used by low-cost airlines, express couriers and for General Aviation activities. In 2016, ADR recorded, as an airport system, over 47 million passengers with over 230 destinations worldwide that can be reached from Rome, thanks to around 100 airlines operating at the two airports. 

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