After more than two years of legal wrangling, Italy's second-busiest passenger airport has finally been named in honor of the late former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the Associated Press reported.
The ceremony included the unveiling of a silver plaque at the airport. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and members of Berlusconi's family were among those in attendance.
The decision to name the airport after him initially met with resistance from the Milan municipality, which filed a lawsuit to stop the procedure to change the name of the airport. Three nearby towns in the Lombardy region also did the same. They argued that the power to name objects belongs to the cities, not the civil aviation authority. Another argument was that the law prohibits the erection of monuments to individuals before 10 years have passed since their death.
In April 2026, a court in Lombardy declared the cities' objections inadmissible and cleared the way for the naming of Milan-Malpensa Airport after Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi was born and raised in Milan, where he built his media empire. He was the owner of the football club AC Milan. The billionaire media mogul turned prime minister dominated Italian politics for three decades. Berlusconi died in 2023 at the age of 86.
Some of the other major Italian airports are named after famous historical figures. Rome's airport is named after Leonardo da Vinci, Venice's is named after Marco Polo, and Verona's airport is named after the Latin poet Valerius Catullus.