La mafia in aeroporto. Punta Raisi: cronaca di una speculazione annunciata

Abstract

The history of Palermo’s Punta Raisi Airport – that is called today “Falcone and Borsellino” in memory of the two judges killed by Cosa Nostra - started after World War II, coinciding with the increase of civilian air traffic in the skies of the Sicilian capital, third in Italy for its number of transits of passengers and freight, which became unsustainable figures for the military airport of Boccadifalco. Everything begins with the creation in 1953 of the Autonomous Consortium for the Airport of Palermo, with the aim to implement the project of a new infrastructure located a few steps away from the city center, ready to compete with the best airports in Italy, to increase the modernization of commerce and of the Sicilian society. The new airport, in fact, soon became able to affect the life of the people and the history of Palermo, changing the character and social structures of the towns and the villages neighboring the airport station, helping to ground specific interests of Cosa Nostra and becoming a crossroad of criminal trafficking and illegal speculations.