ROME (AP) — Silvio Berlusconia cruise ship singer, media magnate and three-time prime minister who dominated Italian politics for three decades is getting a new act after his death last year.
Milan’s Malpensa Airport, Italy’s second-busiest passenger airport, will be named after the billionaire businessman-turned-politician, Italy’s transport minister announced on Thursday.
The Italian Civil Aviation Authority has approved the proposal and the Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini said the new name will be Milan Malpensa Silvio Berlusconi International Airport.
The proposal was met with resistance, with Milan’s centre-left mayor, Beppe Sala, strongly opposing it and unions counter-proposing that the airport be named after the famous La Scala prima ballerina, Carla Fracci.
But Salvini, a longtime ally of Berlusconi in Italy’s center-right, announced that the decision had been made official. “A great satisfaction for a great Italian,” Salvini said in a social media post.
Some other major airports in Italy are named after historically famous Italians, such as Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome, Marco Polo Airport in Venice and Verona Airport, which is named after the Latin poet Valerio Catullo.
Berlusconi, who died last year at the age of 86 from chronic leukemia, was Italy’s longest-serving prime minister. Some admired him as a charismatic statesman who put Italy on the world stage, but others vilified him as a populist who used political power for personal gain.
According to Assaeroporti, the Italian association of airport operators, Malpensa is Italy’s second-busiest airport, with 26 million passengers passing through it last year, compared to the 40 million passengers who passed through Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport.
Malpensa, located in the industrial heart of Italy, far surpasses Rome in terms of freight traffic, with 672,000 tonnes transported last year, compared to 190,000 tonnes in Rome, the association said.
