Palermo’s Falcone-Borsellino Punta Raisi Airport is looking abroad and investing €70 million.
“We cannot go ahead with public funding alone”
The investment will go into expanding the passenger terminal, commercial areas and services, completing the digitalization of Saf-ready and privatizing its management company Gesap. This road map, as reported by the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore, echoes Gesap's managing director, Gianfranco Battisti who said: Capitalization is necessary, we cannot go ahead with public funding alone.” 
Strengthening relations with North Africa and the Middle East
The airport's future is clearly outlined: “Palermo will no longer be a transit airport. We are working on an ambitious industrial plan, built on concrete, sustainable foundations and open to partnerships. In a world where geography counts again, choosing Palermo means investing in a project with deep roots and above all solid prospects.” Battisti underlines that the aim is to connect Palermo to the major global hubs, recalling that today the airport boasts direct connections to cities such as New York, Istanbul, Paris, London, Madrid and Vienna. The intention is to strengthen relations with North Africa and the Middle East which are considered expanding markets. The goal is to activate between seven and nine new intercontinental routes by 2030.
Falcone-Borsellino Airport: 45 routes operated by 14 airlines
This winter the airport has 45 routes, 14 airlines and connections to 13 countries: the two main novelties of the season are the new international routes from Warsaw and Bratislava, operated by Ryanair and Wizz Air. Between November 2025 and March 2026 the airport will have over 19,500 aircraft movements, 4% more than last year, while available seats will exceed 3.4 million, an increase of 8%.
“We…want to be intercontinental, dynamic, connected and future-oriented”
This year will close with around "9.2 million passengers and a load factor of 87.4% (...) But the most significant figure is the structural and organizational transformation that we are moving ahead, especially for international traffic, which has exceeded 34% of the total. Palermo no longer wants to be a regional airport, but an intercontinental, dynamic, connected and future-oriented platform.”
