Brescia-Montichiari Airport

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Aeroporto di Brescia-Montichiari "Gabriele D'Annunzio"
Aeroporto di Brescia-Montichiari.JPG
Characteristics
ICAO code LIPO
IATA code VBS
Coordinates

45 ° 25 '44 "  N , 10 ° 19' 50"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 25 '44 "  N , 10 ° 19' 50"  E
Height above MSL 109 m (358  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 15 km southeast of Brescia
Street A4, SP 236, SP 37
Local transport bus
Basic data
opening 1909
operator Aeroporti Sistema del Garda
Terminals 1
Passengers 17.003 (2019)
Air freight 30,695 t (2019)
Flight
movements 		10,954 (2019)
Start-and runway
14/32 2990 m × 45 m asphalt

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The Brescia-Montichiari Airport ( Italian Aeroporto di Brescia-Montichiari "Gabriele D'Annunzio" ; IATA Code : VBS , ICAO code : LIPO ) is located in the northern Italian region of Lombardy , about 15 kilometers southeast of Brescia and just under five kilometers west from Montichiari . For a long time it formed one of the largest military facilities of the Italian Air Force with the neighboring Ghedi military airfield (also known as "Brescia-Ghedi") . Brescia-Montichiari Airport has been used exclusively for civil air traffic since 1999 . The airport operator today is Aeroporti Sistema del Garda , which is also responsible for Verona Airport, which is a little further to the east .

Transport links

Brescia Airport is located in the northern Po Valley , around 15 kilometers southwest of Lake Garda . It can be reached quickly from the surrounding area via the A4 ( Milan - Verona ) and A21 motorways. Simple country roads lead from the Brescia-Ost (A4) and Manerbio (A21) junctions to the small airport terminal , which is located to the south of the airport site. Buses also connect the airport with Brescia train station.

Airlines and Destinations

The airport is currently only served by a few charter and cargo airlines. It is also used to handle airmail and general aviation . The Aeroclub Brescia is based here.

Due to the low traffic density and the approximately three kilometer long runway, which is approved for all-weather flight operating level CAT IIIb , Brescia Airport is used for training flights with commercial aircraft, including by Lufthansa.

history

Car races have been held in the fields near Montichiari since 1904. The Italian Grand Prix, which is held in Monza today, and the Mille Miglia have their origins here. In 1909 the Brescia airfield was built near Montichiari and is one of the oldest in Italy. An international air show was held here in September of that year. Among the audience was Franz Kafka , who wrote a newspaper article about the event with the title “ The Airplane in Brescia ”.

In the following 90 years, Brescia-Montichiari was used for military purposes and shared the fortunes of the Brescia-Ghedi airfield, which is now around three kilometers further to the west , during the First and Second World Wars . In the 1950s they were practically rebuilt after the war damage had been repaired. Parts of the area between the two airfields were sold to farmers on this occasion , but a taxiway connected the two facilities for several years. The military airfield Montichiari was the location of a flying squadron of the Italian Air Force until 1962 , after which it remained as a reserve airfield a kind of branch of Ghedi and recorded only little flight operations. Parts of the Montichiari airfield served as a base for an anti-aircraft missile unit from 1959 to 1999 , after which the Italian Air Force abandoned any further military use.

Businesses from Brescia had already asked for an opening for civil air traffic in the 1980s, although the nearby airports at Milan and Verona can be reached quickly and easily via the A4 motorway. In 1998 and 1999, a small terminal with an apron was built south of the nearly three-kilometer runway . The operator of Verona Airport finally took over Montichiari completely after the military handed the airfield over to the civil aviation authority ENAC . From the beginning, commercial air traffic in Brescia suffered from the proximity of the busier airports of Bergamo and Verona. After even low-cost airlines decided against Montichiari, the operating company tried to specialize the airport in the airmail and airfreight segment.

Ghedi-Montichiari airport

The expansion of the Milan-Malpensa airport , which is located on the edge of a nature reserve, was and is very controversial. As an alternative, it has been suggested several times to build a major central airport for northern Italy on the large area of ​​the Ghedi and Montichiari airfields . In this context, the two parallel runways, which are far apart and offset and would allow independent use, are particularly advantageous. Between the railways there would be space for the construction of several large terminals with connections to the A4 motorway and the Turin - Trieste railway line . The facility would meet the criteria of modern airport construction in every respect.

What speaks against this proposal is the fact that almost all major cities in northern Italy have their own commercial airports with international flight connections and are therefore very well connected to other European aviation hubs . The high density of airports in northern Italy means that passengers do not have to travel long distances to major airports such as Milan-Malpensa. For the profitable operation of a large airport near Brescia it would be necessary to close several other northern Italian airports. The feasibility of such a project can be seen in the example of the city of Milan, which does not want to do without any of its three commercial airports. In addition, the Italian Air Force is currently not ready to forego the Ghedi military airfield.

Web links

Commons : Brescia Montichiari Airport  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Statistiche December 2019. In: assaeroporti.com. Assaeroporti , accessed April 18, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Airbus A350-900 Lufthansa, il primo training flight a Montichiari. theaviation.net, December 28, 2016