Palermo-Punta Raisi Airport

Aeroporto Internazionale di Palermo-Punta Raisi Falcone e Borsellino
Characteristics
ICAO code	LICJ
IATA code	PMO
Coordinates	38 ° 10 '33 " N , 13 ° 5' 28" E Coordinates: 38 ° 10 '33 " N , 13 ° 5' 28" E
Height above MSL	20 m (66 ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	35 km west of Palermo
Street
train	to Palermo
Basic data
opening	1960
operator	GESAP
Terminals	1
Passengers	7,018,087 (2019)
Air freight	1,166 t (2019)
Flight ; movements	54,243 (2019)
Runways
02/20	2068 m × 45 m asphalt
07/25	3326 m × 60 m asphalt

The airport Palermo-Punta Raisi "Falcone e Borsellino" ( Italian Aeroporto Internazionale di Palermo Punta Raisi "Falcone e Borsellino" ) is the international airport of the Italian city of Palermo .

Location and transport links

The airport Palermo-Punta Raisi is located on the north coast of Sicily , 35 km west of Palermo, at Cape Punta Raisi in the municipality of Cinisi .

Train connection to the airport

Car : The airport is on the motorway A29 within easy reach.
Bus : Prestia e Comandé goes to the central station in Palermo (transfer 50 min)
Rail : There is a double-track, electrified terminal station under the terminal . Trains from the Servizio ferroviario metropolitano di Palermo (Line A; the interruption shown on the map was valid until October 2018) run every half hour between the airport and Palermo central station .

history

The international airport at Punta Raisi was opened in 1960 because the old Palermo-Boccadifalco airport , located in the city, was no longer able to cope with the volume of traffic. Taking into account the interests of the Mafia meant that the airport was built in an extremely unfavorable location, which is why approaching aircraft usually have to fly relatively close to the surrounding mountains. The regular strong Scirocco winds soon made it necessary to build a crosswind runway . In 1995 a new terminal with a few passenger boarding bridges was inaugurated and in 2001 a rail connection with the city center was added. A further expansion is planned.

Surname

The airport is named after the Punta Raisi headland on which it is located and after the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino , who were murdered by the Mafia in 1992. Until 2011 a bronze plaque by Tommaso Geraci at the entrance to the airport with the inscription: "Giovanni Falcone - Paolo Borsellino - The Others - The Pride of the New Sicily" commemorated them . During renovations it was removed and taken to the Commissariato in Cefalù.

Traffic figures

Source: Assaeroporti

Palermo-Punta Raisi Airport - 2000-2019 traffic figures
year	Passenger volume	Air freight ( tons ) (with airmail )	Flight movements
2019	7,018,087	1.166	54,243
2018	6,628,558	374	51,418
2017	5,775,274	324	46,627
2016	5,325,539	407	44.122
2015	4,910,791	1,186	42,407
2014	4,569,550	1,507	41,321
2013	4,349,672	1,533	40,244
2012	4,608,533	2,367	42,925
2011	4,992,798	1,977	48,865
2010	4,367,342	2,852	47,076
2009	4,376,143	3,308	49,878
2008	4,446,142	4,320	49.185
2007	4,511,165	4,384	51,217
2006	4,280,614	5,186	47,335
2005	3,831,876	5,219	44,065
2004	3,783,651	4,984	42,766
2003	3,649,494	5,372	42,866
2002	3,539,435	6,549	44,330
2001	3,213,389	6.012	41,777
2000	3,231,267	6.219	43,508

Incidents

Alitalia DC-8 wreck, 1972

On 5 May 1972, a crashed Douglas DC-8-43 of Alitalia ( air vehicle registration number I-DIWB ; baptismal name "Antonio Pigafetta") during their nighttime landing approach to Palermo , as the pilots not the usual approach procedures were carried out and the machine in a mountain flying (CFIT, Controlled flight into terrain ). All 115 people on board died.

On December 23, 1978 a Douglas DC-9-32 of Alitalia (I-DIKQ ; baptismal name "Isola di Stromboli") from Rome also had an accident during the approach to Palermo. The machine crashed into the sea shortly before the runway after the pilots had apparently lost their orientation and had approached too low. Of the 129 people on board, 108 were killed and 21 were rescued with the help of fishing boats.

On 6 August 2005, the flight crew had an ATR 72-200 of the airline Tuninter (TS-LBB) off the coast of Sicily ditch , 26 kilometers from Palermo-Punta Raisi station. The cause of the accident was an incorrectly installed tank level indicator the day before. The indicator intended for the smaller ATR 42 had shown a full tank instead of an empty tank, so that the machine had started with only 570 kg (instead of 3000 kg) of kerosene from Bari towards Djerba . When ditching in the Mediterranean Sea, 16 of the 39 people on board died (see Tuninter flight 1153 ) .

On September 24, 2010, an Airbus A319-132 from Rome-Fiumicino of the Italian low-cost airline Wind Jet (EI-EDM) crashed while landing at Palermo-Punta Raisi Airport. During the approach at around 8 p.m. there was heavy rainfall and wind shearings were also reported. The machine touched down 367 meters from runway 07 and continued to slide 850 meters. The main landing gear of the Airbus buckled. Of the total of 129 people on board, 34 passengers and 1 flight attendant suffered minor injuries during the subsequent evacuation of the aircraft. On November 28, 2014, the Italian air accident authority ANSV finally published its final investigation report and named pilot errors as the main cause of the accident: The report found numerous violations of guidelines; The flight captain waived the mandatory landing briefing, insulted the inexperienced copilot who initially piloted the aircraft and gave him insufficient support during the approach until he took control himself. The report also criticizes the fact that the airport staff only triggered the alarm with a delay and that the first rescue vehicles did not arrive at the aircraft until 22 minutes after the accident. At this point, the passengers had already escaped on foot to the nearby airport building.