Never will it be truer than in 2025 that all roads lead to Rome. And the same can be said for all air routes. The eagerly awaited Jubilee will be a magnet for the Eternal City, which will once again be an incredible sounding board for Catholics - and not only - from all over the world. The forecasts? We are talking about something like 35 million arrivals to Rome alone (there were 21 million in 2023, 8% more than in the 2019 pre-Jubilee).
These numbers will undoubtedly put a strain on the city's infrastructure, starting with its airports, but that is not discouraging US carriers which they have already begun implementing their largest operations to date. The increases in capacity planned for next year, and especially for the summer, seem to be the apotheosis of a rising parabola that started post-pandemic, and that for now shows no sign of easing, even in terms of travel demand. Demand that seeks solutions through increased frequencies to well-established destinations - Rome and Milan chiefly - but also with the launch of alternatives in the rest of Italy, for example Palermo and Catania in Sicily.
All of this despite an industry continually challenged by the difficulty of sourcing new aircraft, which is an essential element of capacity growth. So be it: Italy becomes, as in the case of Delta Air Lines, the main European market in which to invest (a +10% capacity increase already deployed) with the launch of four new routes, Catania-New York, Naples-Atlanta, Milan Malpensa-Boston and Rome Fiumicino-Minneapolis.
Little will change at United Airlines, which will launch the New York-Palermo route alongside the direct flights already operating on Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Naples, and Venice with a Washington-Venice flight in addition to the Newark-Venice. For American Airlines 2025 will bring new daily routes from Philadelphia to Milan Malpensa, and from Miami to Rome: the latter bringing to six the number of US airports linked directly to Fiumicino. And American Airlines will also increase the frequency of flights on routes already operating on Rome, Naples and Venice, making 2025 the summer with the most extensive operations to Italy in the carrier’s history.
Mariella Cattaneo
Journalist
