122 Perugia airport expansion?

Have you thought of contacting the airport. I read somewhere cannot remember where that the runway has to be extended before Ryan air can fly in.
So if the work has been started.........etc etc

According to LaPortaVerde.com "There will be flights by Ryanair from Stansted to Perugia starting November 2005". Perugia is mentioned on the Ryanair website, but only because it is close(ish) to Forli airport.

Perugia airport's website ([url]http://www.airport.umbria.it/[/url]) has no information that i could find, but everyone's favourite (I guess) Italian air transportation newsletter back in November 2004 said:

La pista dell'aeroporto di Perugia deve essere prolungata assolutamente a 2.500 metri circa e in tempi brevi, altrimenti tutto ciò che e' stato deciso per lo sviluppo dello scalo aereo umbro, potrebbe avere ripercussioni a non finire. La provincia di Perugia e la Sase (società di gestione dello scalo) hanno raggiunto un accordo per velocizzare le operazioni di esproprio dei terreni necessari per il prolungamento della pista. "Entro 90 giorni - ha detto il presidente della provincia Giulio Cozzari - verranno completati gli espropri e dopo un mese i lavori per il prolungamento della pista inizieranno".

..which basically means that runway extension works should commence at the end of March and have to be completed quickly.

Many thanks for the replies.

I am in Perugia for April and May. I will take a drive to the airport and try and make some enquiries.

I will update the forum with any positive info.

Regards to all,

David

I was in Peugia in early June 2005 - evidently the work on the airport has started and is still due for Autumn 2005 completion. One slight problem though. Alledgedly, someone forgot to obtain some planning consent/ compulsory purchases on the land that the expansion is due to tarmac over. Nice One!

RyanAir rumoured to be interested in using the Perugia Airport.

Somebody once said "Only two things in life are certain; death and taxes." To that, we could add a third - that Ryanair will NEVER admit to opening a new route until two weeks before they are due to fly to it.
I can throughly recommend the news section on Ryanir's web site ([url]http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php)[/url], not as a source of information though, but of hilariously politically incorrect amusement; its main use seems to be to bait their competitors and the Trade Unions.
To paraphrase the original quotation, two things about the Perugia route, should it ever happen, will be certain; the fares will be lower than the taxes, and people will be dying to use it. In the meantime, don't miss the opportunity to visit colorful Bydgoszcz or Brno from as little as £2.99!

The only thing that I do wish Ryanair (or a competitor) would do is to open flights from somewhere other than London (or Essex as it is called). To get from my local airport to Italy is a nightmare involving a change at Charles de Gaulle, a long wait, transfer to Rome, luggage inevitably in Bangkok, the grumpy, miserable bastards at the hire car desks in Rome and a sodding long drive including the nightmare of the GRA.

I wouldn't mind to much if the flights were to Ciampino but they all go to Fiumicino which is even worse.

I often think that other airlines have a cheek when they say things like "fly to an airport, not an airfield" hello, I don't intend to spend much time at the airport or airfield so I don't care if it is big and shiny, what I want is to leave from relatively close to home and to arrive relatively close to other home.

Perugia would/will be damned handy for me.

I received an email yesterday from the company I bought my Umbrian apartment from with the following information;

"We decided to contact the airport directly for comments and earlier today (Nov 9th 2005) a person holding a senior management position at the airport confirmed that work [U]has[/U] commenced. We have been told that the project is scheduled for completion in September 2006 and direct flights to the UK will commence immediately. Our source told us that the airline will be Ryanair.

Some further information is available on the Perugia Aiport web site [url]www.airport.umbria.it[/url] where you will see acknowledgement that the project is expected to take 250 days. We have not been able to find any information on the Ryanair web site.

That was the end of the message, so I hope that gives us all the good news we have been waiting for. I was in perugia/Assisi last month and there was definitely work underway.