Reggio di Calabria "Tito Minniti" Airport , also known as Aeroporto dello Stretto (''Airport of the Strait'') is an

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 surface ...

located in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...

, in southern

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 re ...

. It serves mainly the Metropolitan City of Reggio and the

Province of Messina Messina (, ) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital was the city of Messina. It was replaced by the Metropolitan City of Messina. Geography Territory It had an area of , which amounts to 12.6 percent o ...

, and partially the

Province of Vibo Valentia The province of Vibo Valentia ( it, provincia di Vibo Valentia; Vibonese: ) is a province in the Calabria region of southern Italy, set up by a national law of 6 March 1992 which came into effect on 1 January 1996, and formerly part of the Provin ...

; more than 1,350,000 people. Daily flights depart and arrive for and from several Italian cities, and are seasonally augmented by flights to various other countries.

History

Reggio military airport was inaugurated in 1939 (the first airport in Calabria), becoming operative for commercial flights in 1947; later it was named after Italian Royal Air Force war-hero

Tito Minniti Tito Minniti (1909 – 26 December 1935) was an Italian pilot who was killed after he was captured by Ethiopians during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in 1935 near Degehabur. His death and alleged torture became an atrocity story proffered by ...

, who was born in

. Its

IATA airport code An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a three-character alphanumeric geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the ...

REG is derived from Reggio,

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

's main city, which the airport is closest to. On the outskirts of the airport the training grounds of local football club

Reggina Calcio Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are ni ...

are located. In March 2017,

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana Società per azioni, S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of ...

announced it would terminate all 56 weekly flights to and from the airport (to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

) stating all routes were heavily loss-making. However, this decision was revoked shortly after. In summer 2017, Sacal S.p.A. (Società aeroportuale calabrese), also managing

Lamezia Terme Lamezia Terme (), commonly called Lamezia, is an Italian city and ''comune'' of 70,452 inhabitants (2013), in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region. Geography Lamezia is located on the eastern border of the coastal plain commonly cal ...

, took over the management of the airport. , the only destinations served by the airport are Rome, Milan and Turin (seasonal).

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Reggio Calabria Airport:

Statistics

Ground transport

The Reggio Calabria Airport is approximately 5 kilometres south from Reggio's historic city centre. It is accessible by car or public transport. The airport is reachable in 7 minutes by regional trains from Reggio Calabria Centrale or Melito di Porto Salvo. Even the airport railway station has faced criticism by the local community, due to its 2 km distance from the terminal and the low number of passengers which use it. Otherwise, the airport is reachable by bus routes 27 and 27/ from the University and San Brunello and by the Port-Airport direct route, all of which are operated by ATAM and with nearby towns and ports by various provincial bus operators. There was also a projected pier to allow the docking of the ferries from

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

, allowing the residents of the Sicilian city to use the Reggio Calabria Airport instead of driving 200 km south to

Catania Airport Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

. This pier was built, but the prevailing winds did not allow the ferries to dock. This issue, together with low passenger numbers have caused the pier to be abandoned and used by fishermen, becoming a symbol of waste of public money.

References

External links

*
AeroportiCalabria.com
- Info and offers for the passengers that are flying from the Airports of Lamezia, Reggio Calabria and Crotone *
airliners.net - Photogallery
{{authority control Airports in Italy

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 surface ...

Transport in Calabria Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Italy Airports established in 1939