Airport Handling Reaffirms Commitment to Rome Fiumicino Despite Legal Delays

Airport Handling, a majority-owned subsidiary of leading global air and travel services provider dnata, is proud to have been awarded a 7-year license to provide ground handling services at Fiumicino Airport (FCO), following a rigorous competitive tender process. However, the start of its operations has been delayed due to ongoing legal challenges initiated by the outgoing ground handler.

Alberto Morosi, CEO of Airport Handling, said: “Service excellence, innovation and safety have always been our top priorities across our extensive airport operations in Milan, and we look forward to bringing these high standards to Rome Fiumicino airport.

“The airport authority designed the new tender procedure to improve service quality.  Unfortunately, this extended delay impacts not only the awarded service providers but also the airport’s passengers and airlines.

“Despite these setbacks, we remain fully committed to launching operations at Fiumicino as soon as possible. We have already pledged to invest more than €20 million in ground support equipment, including advanced electric vehicles, and plan to hire local, qualified employees to provide best-in-class services. Our recent hiring of senior management with extensive local market experience underscores our dedication.

“We remain optimistic as we await the court’s decision, confident in the accuracy of the airport authority’s actions and the strength of our position.”

Airport Handling is a leading air services provider in Italy. A trusted partner of over 60 airlines, the company’s dedicated teams already handle more than 22 million passengers and 82,000 flights annually at the two Milan airports, Malpensa (MXP) and Linate (LIN).

The majority stakeholder of Airport Handling is dnata, a global player in the combined air services industry, which operates at over 120 airports globally. Besides its ground handling business, dnata also provides catering & retail services at all major Italian airports. 

Serving over 300 airline customers, dnata’s customer-oriented teams handled over 778,000 aircraft turns, moved 2.9 million tonnes of cargo, uplifted 123 million meals, and recorded a total transaction value (TTV) of travel services of US$ 2.4 billion in the financial year 2023-24.