The final salute for Lugano Airport - Bruno Costantini comments on the debate in the City Council

Not even the official burial act with the final salute escapes the grotesque Pirandello. But it is not a serious matter, in fact, neither in general nor for the main Ticino city, the economic capital of the canton, which has to turn the page after the closure of Lugano Airport SA. On Monday evening, the Municipal Council of the pearl of Ceresio, called to ratify the liquidation of LASA and to express itself on the transitional phase towards the private management of the airport and on the social level for the dismissed employees, performed one of its best political-institutional specialties already well run-in (see creation of the autonomous body of the LAC, multiplier, parking at the station): get bogged down alone, not decide and postpone everything to the November session due to a vote that ended in a tie.

Games and tricks, to which it is useless to go back, have seen many in the age-old and surreal airport affair. Furthermore, even a well-known citizen of the Viganello district, such Gigi, has understood that in this long electoral campaign, which unfortunately lasts twice as long as the pandemic has forced to postpone the municipal elections and extend the legislature by a year, is perpetuated. the usual clash between PLR and Lega.

Of course, the intervention of the Northern League municipal councilor Marco Bortolin the other evening who triggered the brawl was completely inappropriate, both as a former member of the Board of Directors of LASA, and for some nonsense about the responsibility for the collapse of the company, attributed to the liberals and red-green referendums who contested the new recapitalization.

Apart from the fact that it is sickening to hear about the ‘abuse of democracy’ by an exponent of that movement that has made popular rights a battle horse, these are arguments that leave the time they find. LASA and scheduled flights from Agno had in any case already been condemned by the market (in the face of the study of the University of St. Gallen), with or without recapitalization, even before the pandemic arrived, hastening the end and disrupting the already turbulent civil aviation sector.

The circles that for pure ideological reasons have always fought the airport have had satisfaction without excessive efforts; others who have always tried to hinder its development, or who have done little to promote it, and who then became indignant at the news of the closure, remember those, in a completely different reality, who contested Monteforno for pollution and then , when in 1994 the industry closed due to the collapse of the rebar market, they lashed out angry at the bailiffs of Von Roll (obviously the story was not so simple and without responsibility).

For over ten years the figures indicated a clear trend for LASA and the safe route to a bottomless pit, but several strategic choices perhaps had to be made even earlier, as the euphoric and unrepeatable era of Crossair ended, to which it would be added, years later, the downsizing of the financial center. In the LASA Boards of Directors that have followed one another in the last twenty years, all the political forces - including the party (later it was) - have had their hands in the pie. The criticisms for the errors and naivety we have seen in recent years are there, but they should not be confused with the power struggles to maintain or regain the political leadership of the city.

Now we must get out of the quagmire. LASA and scheduled flights are dead, but there is an airport structure still alive whose management, by the will of the same Legislature who has opportunely pushed in this direction, he goes towards private individuals to develop general aviation. The road is still long and not without pitfalls. In the meantime, it will be necessary to see who will respond to the so-called ‘call of interest’ and with what industrial plan on an increasingly difficult market. Theoretically, investments and any operating deficits will be borne by these individuals. The ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, so full of creative energy, would do well to monitor these aspects as well, so as to avoid the risk that, by mistake, some still remain in the hands of the City and its taxpayers. In the meantime, we await next month’s show on the extinct loved one. it goes towards private individuals to develop general aviation. The road is still long and not without pitfalls. In the meantime, it will be necessary to see who will respond to the so-called ‘call of interest’ and with what industrial plan on an increasingly difficult market.