Finally Florence (FLR) gets a new airport

Thanks for the info Roberto!

I enjoy reading your posts on this forum, thanks!

Roberto,

Thanks for posting! It's nice to hear that the airport will be expanding, as that will probably mean a greater availability of flights. I wonder if this fits the description of "build it and they will come"?

I wasn't able to read all of the information in the link you provided. Did they indicate whether they will be adding any more taxi ways?

Ken
The picture you see when you open the link shows a depiction of the new runway. It's a brand new runway 12/30 (I.e. 120 degree and 300 degree from the magnetic north) meaning it will be oriented to the northwest/southeast, perpendicular to the current very short runway 05/23, which will be dismantled.
The new runway will be used mostly on the west side only, unlike most airports. In other words planes will land from the west using runway 12 and take off still toward the west using runway 30, in a sort of head to head operation. That will limit the airplane total movements (take off and landings), but they are trying to avoid flying over the city of Florence, which is very close to the East of the runway.
Since airplanes will land from the west and take off to the west, and the terminal is southeast at the end of the runway, taxiways are not as useful because when planes land, they will be next to the terminal at the end of the run and when they depart they will start the run from the same side of the terminal.

A new airport, because they also get a new terminal (already under way). But of course the new runway is the most important feature, because you can't do much with the current one, which is very short and with a tall mountain on the north side which makes it impossible to land from the north.

airplanes will land from the west and take off to the west,

How does that work? One of the first things I learned when I started to study for a pilot's license is that you land into the wind, and you take off into the wind.

Normally the runway would be lined up into the prevailing wind. I'm confused why the new runway would replace a perpendicular one. Has the prevailing wind in Florence moved 90 or 270 degrees over the years?

No Nigel. The prevailing wind hasn't changed much and tends to come from the southwest in summer or the northeast in winter, hence the direction of the current runway 05-23.

Unfortunately, though, there is no room to prolong the current runway (freeway on one side and railway on the other), plus the north side is unusable due to the presence of close mountains (Mt. Morello). So at the moment planes land from the southwest, but when tail winds from the southwest are too strong, flights are diverted to Bologna or Pisa, while when they are too strong from the North East, flights don't take off and get canceled.

The new runway will be perpendicular to the prevailing winds because that's the only way there is room to build a longer one. So with the new runway airplanes will have to land and take off with "cross winds" coming from their side. Not ideal but it beats having to land with tail winds that push you past the end of the 5500ft runway.

Jeez, I actually like the place as it is, but I don't fly their very often. The last time I was at the airport, the bus service was more of an issue than the runway and the terminal.

Will the car rental service eventually be brought back to the airport?

Roberto,

Thanks for the additional information on the runway and taxi way situation at FLR. I wondered about that, as our smaller international airport here is also single runway (2700 m., direction 16/34), but also has a taxi way so that aircraft can use either end of the runway for takeoff, depending on the winds. In my experience, they usually land from the north end and takeoff to the south, which means the taxi way has to be used to reach takeoff position. They lengthened the runway here a few years ago, and it's now large enough to accommodate the smaller version of the Antonov, and there are plans to extend the runway to 3000 m. in a few years.

Due to the terrain, I found out last year when my flights to SEA were cancelled due to heavy fog, that YLW is not a full ILS approach airport and pilots still need a mile of visibility to be able to land. There are some beacons on the surrounding hills which apparently provides partial ILS capability, but I'm not sure exactly how it all fits together.

I think the taxiways would have been a nice addition for FLR as well, although not as necessary if they use only the western end for both take off and landings. However the absence of taxiways was a specific requirement of Tuscany's governor to make sure the FLR airport would not be too competitive with Pisa airport (the Governor is from Pisa). Pisa's mayor also vehemently protested the new Florence airport plans and also demanded the length of the FLR runway not to exceed 2000 mt (6600ft). Of course the governor (from the same town and the same political party) obliged. The increase to 2400 mt (8000 ft) was forced by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (the equivalent of the FAA in the US) to comply with the new international standards by the ICAO.

Can you imagine the Mayor of San Jose (Calif.), 50 miles away from SFO, telling San Francisco they can't build a longer runway because that might take away passengers from San Jose airport? Only in Italy you hear this type of nonsense.

Actually if it weren't because of Renzi's staunch insistence (first as President of the Province of Florence, then as Mayor of Florence and now as Prime Minister), this airport expansion plan would not have gone through at all.

PS: Max. I have no idea if the car rental will move back to the new terminal once completed. Maybe they might move it even further to Pisa, at the request of Pisa's mayor.