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 18 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.

Terminal One


The current Terminal One building originally opened in 1971, and was initially designed to handle five million passengers per year as the only terminal of the airport. The terminal is separated into three semi-circular triads, which form the departure lounge, arrivals hall and check-in concourse, with the aerobridges wrapped around the central terminal. The construction of a second runway in 1974 meant that the terminal building is surrounded on both sides by runways. The terminal reached capacity in 1993. In 2008 the government announced that Terminal One would undergo facelift and expansion to ease congestion and make transfers smoother. Extra aerobridges were installed and the arrivals hall was relocated in a new northern spur of the main building, opening up the eastern concourse for extra flights and amenities. Terminal One also began offering free wi-fi access to all travellers in 2009, after the completion of the expansion.

Terminal One was used by all carriers until the opening of Terminal Two in 1999, when it became a European-focused terminal. Following the renovation works in 2008-9, European airlines were progressively relocated to Terminal Two, with many smaller airlines encouraged by the Cattala Airport Management Authority to move short-haul flights to Calora International. In December 2012 the Terminal became exclusive to Cattala Aviation Group and its partners, Corraile Airlines.

Terminal Two


Terminal 2 opened in 1999 as part of the government's extensive aviation policy reform. The new terminal was more than triple the size of the original Terminal One, and extended the airport's capacity from 10 million to 20 million passengers annually. The new building was built to the north of the original terminal, with tunnels and roads connecting both central facilities together. 19 air bridges extend from the main pier northwards from the main terminal building.

All long haul flights are operated from Terminal Two after relocating from Terminal One, and many European airlines now fly into T2 after the renovation and rebranding of Terminal One as the exclusive hub of CAG and partners. It was originally planned that this terminal would have a decagon end to the pier, but this was changed early in the construction phase to allow other planes more space to taxi in. The groundworks for a decagon had already been laid, so the extension could be "quite easily" constructed and increase the airports capacity to the initial 20 million passengers targeted. Terminal Two is accessed via a separate spur from the M1 motorway, which previously had one spur to Terminal One. There is no main road link between Terminals One and Two, so passengers who turn off on the wrong spur frequently get lost.

Railair Services
Jennai Airport Station was opened in 1972 and operated railway services between Jennai Harbour and Celeste's central station three times an hour, with 60 minute journey's between both main cities cutting journey times compared to the congested main roads. However the service was underused and passengers complained about the large number of suburban stations stopped at by the trains; Jennai International was regarded as a "small town station on a slow line" according to a Ministry of Transport inquiry, commissioned in the 1980s to investigate why there was so little usage of the railway service.

In 1990, the railway station was closed for a major upgrade, and a spur was built connecting it to the InterCity line between Celeste and Jennai Harbour. A dedicated connection between two major cities and the airport was made and regular services increased. The station was extended underground, with two platforms and two tracks created to reduce delay and congestion on the line.

By 2005, the station had seen its passenger numbers rise above 7 million from just 1 million a year six years earlier. The station had reached capacity and required a major expansion to limit congestion and encourage more passengers to stop using cars to travel to the airport. The following year the new government announced its intentions to close the station for six months to build a further two railway tracks and an extra platform to resolve the capacity problem. Controversially, the station was closed and a replacement bus service set up to take passengers to the nearby town of Ovarco, which had become the de facto terminus for the services from Jennai International to the city itself. The upgrade meant new 10-car trains could run on the spur and services could for the first time terminate at the airport station.

Upon the opening of the new station, the Managing Director of Jennai International announced that the station was being renamed from "Jennai Airport Station" to "Jennai International", and the new terminal routes on platforms 1 and 3 would be referred to as "Jennai Railair" services. This branding was later rolled out across the line. Despite the recent upgrade and expansion of the railway service, there are already proposals to construct a fourth platform above ground to the north of Terminal Two, for dedicated suburban services and potentially direct services to Calora and the North.