Rome airport faces partial shutdown as summer season starts

Air transport authority Enac said the cut in capacity, which will lead to the gradual shutdown of arrivals at Terminal 3, would begin at midnight (2200 GMT) on Friday. There was no indication of how long it was expected to last.

Enac said the decision was taken because of concerns over the security risk from overcrowding in the terminal buildings. Prosecutors investigating the May 7 blaze have closed part of the airport, which has been operating at 80 percent of capacity since the fire.

Despite airlines' assurances that they would try to keep the inconvenience suffered by passengers to a minimum, consumer rights groups warned of chaos unless flight timetables were overhauled completely to handle the summer rush.

"The summer season is beginning and without adequate solutions, there is a risk that services will collapse," said Pietro Giordano, head of consumer rights organisation Adiconsum.

"More than a month has gone by since the fire and it's no longer possible to talk about exceptional circumstances as a justification for this continuing breakdown in services."

Airport operator Aeroporti di Roma, part of motorways group Atlantia SpA, initially asked authorities last month for approval for the reduction because of health concerns about lingering air pollution from chemicals released in the fire.

Prosecutors say they have not decided how long they will sequester the section of the airport that has been shut down for their investigation.

FIOM, a union that represents some maintenance workers at the airport, said the health of 30,000 airport staff as well as passengers was at stake. It said it would oppose any "irresponsible" efforts to push magistrates and safety authorities to rush through checks in order to get the airport back to full capacity.

Airline industry groups said in a joint statement that they had received insufficient and contradictory information about the capacity cuts and complained that conflicting responsibilities between airport management bodies had made their work "extremely difficult".

Italy's national carrier Alitalia said it would concentrate check-in operations in Terminal 1, while Air France-KLM said it expected to reduce services from Rome.

Fiumicino handled almost 39 million arrivals and departures last year, more than twice as many as its nearest rival Milan Malpensa, according to data from airport industry association Assaeroporti.

(Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio; Editing by Pravin Char)