3.000.000 of passengers at Herat airport

30/04/14

Yesterday, Spanish lieutenant Javier Llorente Lopez arriving from Kabul, was the three millionth passenger in transit at Herat airport since the 5 March 2005, the wheels of a C-130J of the Air Force touched the asphalt of the runway at Herat airport, kicking off the Italian military presence in the western region of the country.

The curious goal was celebrated with the delivery to the unbelieving passenger of a special certificate from the commander of the Forward Support Base (FSB), the Spanish Colonel of the Spanish Air Force Joaquin Fernandez Pareja, and of the Lieutenant Colonel of the Italian Air Force Pasquale Lamberti, the highest Italian officer in the ranks of the FSB, the Italian-Spanish unit in charge of managing airport services and security at "Camp Arena", the base that hosts the military of the multinational contingent and ISAF joint forces on a brigade basis "Sassari".

Herat airport, inaugurated on September 19, 1961, is today one of the most strategic civil and military airports in Afghanistan, which has just begun internationalization. The passenger terminal, built by the Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team, is dedicated to the captain of the Army Massimo Ranzani, the Alpine who died on February 28, 2011 due to the explosion of an improvised device.