The White Lady and the short memory syndrome….
The disease of the century…
Reading today the interview released on Sunday in L’Arena di Verona by dr. Scarpa, almost 9 years after SAVE’s “coup” on Catullo SpA, reminds us how often for some the numbers are just a fiction and can be read for one’s own use and consumption.
But we know that lies have short legs and the truth ends up prevailing over nonsense. Let’s start by pointing out one of the statements of Dr. Scapa who becomes CEO of Catullus only after the resignation of the previous CEO and not since 2014.
Then we find it very important to highlight that:
1) the entry of SAVE was “not compliant with the law” as clearly highlighted by the ANAC (published here with comments), and at the time of entry of SAVE the company was already restructured and made safe with structural interventions (closing handling companies, Catullo Park and other loss-making businesses) which could hardly have made SAVE. Almost 300 units were sold (and never recovered) and it should not be forgotten that the shareholders made a capital increase of 15 million in 2012 to save business continuity. Therefore SAVE, as we have written several times, has found itself a restructured company to be relaunched, but certainly in balance as shown by the 2014 financial statements (already published here).
2) The real disaster was precisely the entry of SAVE which from 2014 to today has not made sense of the expected development and made Catullo SpA become a branch of SAVE without its own strategic identity in such an important “catchment area” like that of Garda.
This, I repeat, was the real disaster for Catullus.
3) Dr. Scarpa continues to say the opposite of the truth when she places the Venice airport in 3rd place in Italy. The Assaeroporti data for 2019 highlight the Tessera airport in 4th place with 11.5 million pax with Bergamo firmly in 3rd place (13.2 million) established by Naples (10.8 million) which was growing with exponential growth and which would certainly have made it relegate Venice in 5th place. You make us smile as the colleague who did the interview didn’t check the real numbers, but also “trusted” the White Lady. All you had to do was go to the website of the institution that rattles off real numbers…
4) That the necessary relaunch investments have not been made by SAVE in almost 9 years of “occupation” is clear and evident to everyone. The Romeo project, conceived as a “temporary” solution before giving a European-standard terminal to a city and a territory, has become the solution to all problems, sponsored by the Presidentissimo Arena, Riello’s sidekick and the now ex-mayor Sboarina . Dr. Scarpa almost makes us tender in her incompetence when she says that Verona will carry 5 million passengers and we ask ourselves where in which terminal? It is enough to know this business to understand that this will not be possible and the Garda area will fall into an unprecedented hospitality crisis. We have repeatedly pointed out that doing a few more check-in desks, without touching the arrivals terminal, leads nowhere and I mean unfortunately for the area.
5) Dr. Scarpa always talks about the disasters of previous managements without understanding that the public shareholder, in addition to being the one in charge of the disasters, is still her majority shareholder and decides unanimously with her; so why continue to insist on this issue without explaining why nothing has been done by SAVE about her, and I mean nothing in these 9 years?
6) Dr. Scarpa, be that as it may, has entered the Guinness Book of Records for having closed the passenger terminal in Brescia and turned it into a warehouse: the first all-cargo airport in the world! Such a sensational mistake that in a normal country whoever has given approval in ENAC should be tried for tax damages given the cost of a passenger terminal compared to that of a warehouse. The Montichiari airport was the main reason (excuse used by public shareholders) for SAVE’s entry into Catullo. Nine years after their entry, the airport has never seen a passenger flight and continues to lose millions of euros a year. And what does Dr. Scarpa tell us about this disaster?
Verona and the entire Garda area are the only “locomotive” area in northern Italy that does not have an airport development plan suited to the needs of the area, and this, in addition to being very serious, is inexplicable. Perhaps the cause is an absent local policy!
Now some trombone will write that we need to intervene, that it’s not possible to end up like this, that they’re telling us about it and haven’t made any investments… Everything is already known.
From the January 6, 2018 from these columns we carried out an investigation with numbers and references. Many have talked about it, some have been busy, but whoever can decide has turned away.
I would like to conclude with a reference to politics, if there is real politics in Verona. A few months have passed since the administrative elections, and the new “altar boy” Mayor, together with his coalition, had promised to intervene on the airport. The intervention is silent, unanimous as the White Lady says. Time passes and electoral promises remain words in the wind, exactly as happened with the previous mayor.
In addition to Covid, the consociationalism that reigns in Verona is also a pandemic to all intents and purposes.
The main newspaper of the city which supports an interview (whether it is an editorial?) which certainly borders on (if not even surpasses) the imagination, avoiding instead emphasizing that the disaster in recent years has been precisely SAVE and the fact that an international tender has not been made for the search for a real industrial partner, capable of developing the Verona and Brescia airports with a medium-long term vision.
Who knows if 2023 won’t bring a real novelty, given that the board of directors is about to expire and that to place one’s horses, sometimes you use the strong way… 😉
Barbara Cotta Morandini