Catania airport

Aeroporto Internazionale di Catania-Fontanarossa "Vincenzo Bellini"
Characteristics
ICAO code	LICC
IATA code	CTA
Coordinates	37 ° 28 '0 "  N , 15 ° 3' 59"  E Coordinates: 37 ° 28 '0 "  N , 15 ° 3' 59"  E
Height above MSL	12 m (39  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	about 5 km south of Catania
Street
Local transport	Public bus
Basic data
opening	May 1924
operator	Società Aeroporto Catania SpA (SAC)
surface	300 ha
Terminals	1
Passengers	10,223,113 (2019)
Air freight	5,748.8 t (2019)
Flight movements	75,070 (2019)
Capacity ( PAX per year)	10 million
Start-and runway
08/26	2435 m × 45 m asphalt

The Catania-Fontanarossa Airport ( Italian Aeroporto di Catania-Fontanarossa "Vincenzo Bellini" ; IATA Code : CTA , ICAO code : LICC ) is located south of Catania , the second largest city in Sicily .

It is used by the Italian Navy as a naval aviation base MARISTAELI Catania in addition to civil use as a military airfield .

Location and transport links

Fontanarossa Airport is located five kilometers south of the city center and the port of Catania on the Mediterranean coast. On the road running SP70 both the city and is also the motorway A18 Messina - Syracuse and the A19 Catania- Palermo within easy reach. There are shuttles to the city center and the main train station as well as intercity buses . An extension of the Metropolitana di Catania to the airport is planned.

photos

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  Apron

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  Jetbridge

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  Apron

history

The airport was opened for civil traffic in May 1924. During the Second World War it served as a military airfield , especially for units of the German Air Force , which, because of its location, used it for transport flights to North Africa and for combat missions in the central Mediterranean area. After the Allied landing in Sicily , the airfield was taken over by US Air Force units in the summer of 1943 and returned to the Italian Aviation Administration at the end of the war.

In 1947 the first flight of the newly founded Alitalia led from Turin via Rome to Fontanarossa Airport. The construction of a new dispatch hall , which was inaugurated in 1950, began. In the 1970s, it was decided to rebuild the terminal and various other construction measures, including a new control tower, an extension of the runway and a freight terminal. The passenger terminal, inaugurated on August 5, 1981, was soon no longer able to cope with the increasing volume of traffic. A new, significantly larger terminal with a capacity of up to ten million passengers a year has been in operation since May 8, 2007. On this occasion, the name of the largest airport in southern Italy was changed to Aeroporto di Catania-Fontanarossa " Vincenzo Bellini " . Before that it was named after the geophysicist and meteorologist Filippo Eredia. After the completion of the extension of the apron and taxiways, the construction of two more terminals, a second runway, a rail connection, additional parking garages and shopping centers are planned.

Civil use

The civil part of the airport is located north of the roughly 2,400 meter long runway. The new passenger terminal on Via Angelo d'Arrigo has six passenger boarding bridges . To the east, there are old terminal facilities that are to be expanded or partly integrated. In the northwest, an area is reserved for general aviation and for airborne units by security agencies.

Airlines and Destinations

Catania u. a. served by Germanwings , Eurowings and Lufthansa , previously also by Air Berlin . Other airlines, including Austrian Airlines and Swiss , offer seasonal flights to Catania. Major local low-cost airlines are Ryanair , easyJet , Volotea and Vueling Airlines . Numerous charter flights to Catania are offered in the summer months . Alitalia connects Catania with its Rome-Fiumicino hub , with Milan-Linate and with other cities, sometimes only seasonally and with its partners.

Catania-Fontanarossa was the home airport of Air Sicilia from 1994 to 2001 and of Wind Jet from 2003 to 2013 .

Traffic figures

Source: Assaeroporti

Source: Assaeroporti

Catania Airport - traffic figures 2000–2019

year	Passenger volume	Air freight ( tons ) (with airmail )	Flight movements
2019	10.223.113	5,749	75,070
2018	9,933,318	6,419	73.494
2017	9,120,913	6,691	68.170
2016	7.914.117	6,379	61,080
2015	7,105,487	6.220	54,988
2014	7,304,012	6.206	59,926
2013	6,400,127	6.123	54,406
2012	6,246,888	7,904	54,717
2011	6,794,063	8,966	60,490
2010	6,321,753	9.210	57,661
2009	5,935,027	8,529	56,361
2008	6,054,469	8,808	58.191
2007	6,083,735	8,813	60,953
2006	5,396,380	9.234	53,846
2005	5,192,697	9,840	54,036
2004	5,107,832	10,082	53,856
2003	4,807,643	12,402	54,436
2002	4,079,609	9,761	48,467
2001	3,925,289	13,133	47,749
2000	3,970,754	12,102	47,910

Military use

The military part of the airport is located south of the runway. Two helicopter squadrons of the Italian naval aviation are stationed there. This naval air base , named after the aviation pioneer Mario Calderara , was built in the 1960s; Before that, the military used the area in the north-west of the airport grounds, which is now reserved for the coast guard , the Carabinieri and other security and civil protection organizations.

Other airports in eastern Sicily

The Sigonella military airfield is located around 15 kilometers southwest of Fontanarossa Airport . Due to work on the runway in Catania-Fontanarossa, Sigonella took over commercial air traffic in Catania for four weeks on November 5, 2012. Further south, near the city of Ragusa , is Comiso Airport , which reopened for commercial air traffic in 2013.

It has repeatedly been considered to build a new major airport for Catania on the former military airfield Gerbini ( Lage ) or in neighboring Sigonella, because Fontanarossa no longer has any major expansion possibilities. The airport would be about 25 kilometers west of Catania on the A 19 motorway to Palermo and the railway line running next to it .

Web links

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

• Official site of Catania Airport (Italian, English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Statistiche. In: assaeroporti.com. Assaeroporti , accessed January 24, 2019 (Italian). 
2. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Italy, Sicily and Sardinia , pp 52-56 , accessed on 7 October 2015
3. ↑ dedalonews.it on the relocation of commercial air traffic ( memento of December 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )