There is a sense of renewed momentum around Genoa’s Cristoforo Colombo airport, and a clear signal has come from the direct involvement of the Autorità di Sistema Portuale del Mar Ligure Occidentale (Western Ligurian Sea Port System Authority). In June 2026, the authority brought its president, Matteo Paroli, to the top of the airport company as well, following his appointment announced on 22 June 2026 by the shareholders’ meeting of Aeroporto di Genova Spa. Paroli will lead Cristoforo Colombo airport until the approval of the 2026 financial statements, in a phase that the Asp itself describes as strategic for the airport’s future. The port authority holds 60% of the airport company’s shares and said in a statement that it wanted to take a direct role on the board to support the process of enhancing the company’s value and to identify an industrial partner capable of backing its medium- and long-term development. The remaining 40% of the share capital is held by the Camera di Commercio di Genova (Genoa Chamber of Commerce).
Alongside chairman Paroli, the new board of directors consists of Barbara Grasso and Alessandro Arvigo, appointed by the Asp, and Alessandro Cavo and Daniele Papone, nominated by the Camera di Commercio. The shareholders thanked outgoing chairman Enrico Musso and board member Ilaria Queirolo for their completed term, during which the airport recorded growth both in economic and financial terms and in passenger traffic.
The change at the top coincides with the launch of due diligence activities aimed at determining the company’s value, a preliminary step towards identifying an industrial partner through transparent, market-based procedures. Paroli linked the port authority’s decision to take a more direct role partly to the controversy that has appeared in recent weeks in the local press, which, according to the new chairman, confirms the sensitivity of the current phase. The chairman stressed that the operation is being carried out in harmony with the Camera di Commercio as shareholder, with the aim of ensuring full institutional oversight and clear management of the process that will define the company’s future ownership structure. Luigi Attanasio, president of the Camera di Commercio di Genova, confirmed the intention to continue the ongoing activities towards a shared valuation of the company, opening up the possibility for interested local public bodies to join the shareholding structure and take part in the airport’s future development strategies.
The path towards bringing in a qualified industrial partner, already launched by the Asp and the Camera di Commercio, is intended to secure investment, management expertise and an international development vision for the airport. The airport exceeded 1.57 million passengers in 2025 and is confirming further growth in 2026 thanks to an expansion of routes and a stronger commercial offer. In recent years, the airport has also strengthened charter connections for cruise passengers and launched new flights serving international tourism flows.
The entry of an industrial partner is considered a decisive step in enabling the airport to make a further leap in scale, strengthening its ability to attract new international connections, develop high-value-added cargo traffic and consolidate synergies with the cruise sector, one of the main drivers of the region’s tourism economy. The outlook set out for Cristoforo Colombo is that of an infrastructure increasingly integrated into Liguria’s port and logistics system, capable of making the most of the complementarity between port and airport and contributing to the area’s growth through tourism, intermodality and production chains linked to national and international traffic.
M.G.
