Pisa International Airport ( it, Aeroporto Internazionale di Pisa) , also named Galileo Galilei Airport is an airport located in Pisa,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is the main airport in

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

and the 10th in Italy in terms of passengers. It is named after

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He wa ...

, the famous scientist and native of Pisa. The airport was first developed for the military in the 1930s and 1940s. The airport was used by 5,233,118 passengers in 2017. It serves as a focus city of Ryanair.

Overview

The airport had its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

with a service to and from Pisa Central railway station but this was closed on December 15, 2013 to allow construction work to begin on a new fully automatic connection known as the Pisa Mover to take passengers to Pisa Central. The Pisa Mover came into operation on March 18, 2017. The airport has 5 passenger and 1 coach parking areas. Besides civilian operations, the airport is also used extensively by the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force) and is a base for, amongst others, the C-130 Hercules and

C-27J Spartan The Alenia C-27J Spartan is a military transport aircraft developed and manufactured by Leonardo's Aircraft Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi until 2016). It is an advanced derivative of Alenia Aeronautica's earlier G.222 (C-27A Spartan in ...

transport aircraft. The airport is home to 46ª Brigata Aerea Silvio Angelucci (46th Air Brigade). During the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the airport was used as a base for the

15th Air Force The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force ...

of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Facilities

The airport is at an elevation of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has 2

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

s: 04R/22L measuring and 04L/22R measuring .Airport information for LIRP
from

DAFIF DAFIF () or the ''Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File'' is a comprehensive database of up-to-date aeronautical data, including information on airports, airways, airspaces, navigation data, and other facts relevant to flying in the entire w ...

(effective October 2006)

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

In 2006 and 2007, the airport was the fastest growing among Italy's top 15 airports with passenger numbers up 30% in 2006 and 24% in 2007. In 2008 it was Italy's 11th busiest airport handling and 4,011,525 passengers in 2010. In 2011 the growth rise to 11.3% and the airport carried 4.526.723 passengers.

Accidents and incidents

*On 27 January 1952, Seaboard & Western Airlines Douglas C-54A-5-DO overshot the runway on landing. Fire consumed the aircraft. 47 out of the 50 cows carried on board the plane died. *On 23 November 2009,

Italian Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello , mascot = , anniversaries = 28 March ...

Lockheed KC-130J Hercules MM62176 of the based 46 Aerobrigata crashed just after take-off. All five crew members were killed.

References

External links

Official website

Toscana Aeroporti website

News about the airport
* * {{authority control Airports in Italy Transport in Tuscany

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

Buildings and structures in Pisa Geography of Pisa Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Italy Airports established in 1911 1911 establishments in Italy