Fiumicino, 26 February 2018 – The sting of bad weather and snow seems to have loosened its grip on the Roman coast. Fiumicino and Ciampino airports are slowly returning to full operation.

A few minutes ago, Runway 3 at Leonardo da Vinci also saw a return to normal operation; this, alongside Runway 1 which never stopped operating, will help the airport make up delays in arrivals and departures that accumulated over the morning, including re-routed flights. Following the airport’s Snow Committee plans made in the past few days, runway maintenance operations sprang into action overnight as the first snowflakes fell: around 30,000 litres of antifreeze were poured on flight infrastructures to avoid the formation of ice on runways and aprons, and to speed up the removal of snow settled on the ground.

From 02:15 onwards, when the snow worsened, special snow vehicles were brought in (blades with integrated brushes, antifreeze spreaders, special turbines). Despite 10 cm of snow falling in fewer than 4 hours, this allowed for the airport to remain in operation. Aircraft de-icing operations have also been ongoing since last night, and are essential in cases such as this to ensure flight safety: in low temperatures, snow which settles on aircraft wings tends to freeze and prevent take-off.

For this reason, Fiumicino stores over 100,000 litres of antifreeze for aircraft, which are now being used by special equipment.

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 three 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 2017, ADR recorded, as an airport system, 46,9 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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