Jennai International Airport

Jennai International Airport is the primary international airport serving Jennai and the country of Cattala at large. Located some 16km away from Jennai Harbour, it is also the largest international airport in the south of the Italian Peninsula, handling 15.5 million passengers in 2011. In 2011, Jennai became Europe's 27th busiest airport, overtaking Athens International. In the last few years it has made extensive improvements to public transport connectivity, access roads and inter-terminal transportation.

Jennai has two passenger terminals with a total annual handling capacity of 17 million passengers. Terminal One opened in 1971, followed by Terminal Two in 1999. The airport will require extra terminal and runway capacity by the years 2020 and 2030 respectively if it continues to grow at the current rate.

History
Aeroporto di Jennai was opened in Ovarco on 17th September 1937 by the then Minister for Transport, Alessandro Dupini. Its first flights were solely in the Italian peninsula and Greece, but there were plans to expand into France, Spain and even North Africa by 1943. During the Second World War it served as a base for Cattala's fledgling Royal Air Force, until it was captured by Italian forces in 1940 and was used as a base for Axis fighter pilots. Following the war it was restored by Anglo-American aid and became the country's first major airport, with most of the traffic during the 1950s being reconstruction and aid cargo from the UK and America.

In the 1960s the airport was taken over by the country's newly founded Aviation Commission and an expansion plan was proposed, including a new aviation research centre and the headquarters for AriaRegale, Cattala's largest aerospace firm. In 1971, Terminal One was opened by HG King Roger XVI and passenger numbers rose significantly as the airport became the centre of Cattala's aviation market. In 1972, Jennai International Airport became the most profitable airport in the country and has held that title continuously ever since.

The airport continued to expand, with the completion of its second runway in 1974 and the freight centre in 1977. Both runways were more than 3000 metres long, allowing for widebodied aircraft to use the airport for the first time and passenger numbers reached 5 million in 1980. Over the next ten years, routes from North America, South America, southern Africa and Oceania began to serve Jennai and the passenger numbers doubled to 10 million by 1992. The airport reached 99% capacity in 1993 when calls for a new terminal or even a new airport were making newspaper front pages daily, most significantly when the chairman of Cattala Airways threatened to abandon Jennai International in favour of Malta International and Roumeli International.

The government announced its plan to build a state-of-the-art new second Terminal to increase passenger capacity to 20 million, as well as reducing restrictions on the number of night flights into Jennai International. Terminal Two was completed and opened in 1999 and the second runway was extended to allow for more flexibility in flights. Since the opening of the second Terminal, passenger numbers have risen from 10.2 million to 15.5 million today.

In 2009 the airport's railway station was rebuilt and extended, with rapid railway services from both Jennai and Celeste terminals created on a dedicated spur. Upon its reopening, Jennai Airport's Managing Director revealed the airport would be rebranded and undergoing extensive international expansion, with new routes created from across the world, including Atarashima and Lower Columbia. Following this, the Cattala Airport Management Authority announced its intention to sell off Jennai International to new owners who could further invest in its infrastructure capacity, which is expected to require upgrading by 2030 at the latest.