Verona Villafranca Airport , also known as Valerio Catullo Airport or ''Villafranca Airport'', is located southwest of
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
, Italy. The airport is situated next to the junction of
A4 Milan-Venice and
A22 Modena-Brenner motorways. It serves a population of more than 4 million inhabitants in the provinces of
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
,
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...
,
Mantua (Mantova) and
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
it, Trentino (man) it, Trentina (woman) or it, Altoatesino (man) it, Altoatesina (woman) or it, Sudtirolesegerman: Südtiroler (man)german: Südtirolerin (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title = Official ...
.
History
Early years
Villafranca Air Base was a military airport during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. It became open to civil traffic in the early 1910s with daily scheduled connections to Rome and charter flights to destinations in northern Europe.
Towards late 1970s, under the first community project by the Province of Verona, Comune of Verona and the local Chamber of Commerce, Villafranca Airport constructed a passenger terminal, offices and handling facilities. The managing society, ''Aeroporto Valerio Catullo di Verona Villafranca S.P.A.'', was established in December 1978. Ownership is currently shared between provincial governments from
Veneto
it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 = ...
(Villafranca di Verona and Sommacampagna),
Lombardy (Province of Brescia),
Trentino
Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...
(second main shareholder) and
Alto Adige/Südtirol
it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol
, settlement_type = Autonomous area, Autonomous Provinces of Italy, province
, image_skyline = ...
.
Expansion in the 1990s and 2000s
In 1990, the passenger terminal was expanded in order to cope with the constantly growing air traffic. The aircraft apron and car-parking areas were enlarged; in addition, access to the airport was improved by a road link to Verona's new ring road (SS12) in preparation for the
1990 FIFA World Cup.
In 1995, the airport reached a record of handling one million passengers per annum. In 1999, the airport became Italy's second-grade airport in the 'Special Classification of Charter Traffic' and ranked after
Milan Malpensa Airport
Milan Malpensa Airport is the largest international airport in northern Italy, serving Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria, as well as the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The airport is northwest of Milan, next to the Ticino river dividing Lombardy and Pie ...
and
Rome Fiumicino Airport
, 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 ...
.
During the
Bosnian War, the airport was used by
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
aircraft as a staging area.
Passenger numbers continued to grow: 2 million per year in 2001 and 3 million per year in 2006. In response to the strong demand in patronage, the airport undertook a significant expansion programme on its services and facilities. In May 2006, a new arrivals terminal, Terminal 2, was opened by the Vice-Minister of Transport, Cesare De Piccoli, and Vice-President of
Veneto
it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 = ...
Region,
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia (born 27 March 1968) is a Venetian and Venetist politician, who has been President of Veneto since 2010.
Prior to that, Zaia was President of the Province of Treviso from 1998 to 2005, Vice President of Veneto from 2005 to 2008 and ...
. This additional terminal is situated immediately next to the original building, now known as Terminal 1. As a result of the expansion programme, the airport's capacity doubled. Hence Terminal 1 is used solely for departures and Terminal 2 for arrivals.
2010s
Air traffic continued to grow during the 2010s, with 3,385,794 passengers recorded in 2011. After a
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
investigation into high subsidies being granted to
Ryanair on their scheduled routes, the airline pulled out of Villafranca Airport in 2012. This caused a reduction in passenger traffic in 2013.
In 2015,
Ryanair reintroduced services to the airport with scheduled flights to Palermo, London Stansted and Brussels. Several airlines have switched their charter routes to regular services during the Winter Season 2015-16:
Finnair
Finnair ( fi, Finnair Oyj, sv, Finnair Abp) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...
flies between Verona and Helsinki and
AirBaltic
airBaltic, legally incorporated as AS Air Baltic Corporation, is the flag carrier of Latvia, with its head office on the grounds of Riga International Airport in Mārupe municipality near Riga. Its main hub is Riga, and it operates bases ...
flies between Verona and Riga. The route between Paris and Verona, as operated by Air France, however, ceased operation in late October 2015, having been replaced with flights operated by its low-cost subsidiary,
Transavia
Transavia Airlines C.V., trading as Transavia and formerly branded as ''transavia.com'', is a Dutch low-cost airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of KLM and therefore part of the Air France–KLM group. Its main base is Amsterdam Airport Schi ...
.
Facilities
Verona-Villafranca Airport is equipped with a fog-dispersal device, so that flight operations could continue during times of low visibility. This system has been in operation since 2003 and allows pilots to land in visibility as low as . The runway is certified for ILS Category IIIb approach.
The two terminals, departures and arrivals, are situated next to each other. The departures hall hosts check-in facilities at the eastern side. The lounge is located on the first floor's eastern wing. The main bus stand is located directly outside the arrivals hall.
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Verona Villafranca Airport:
Statistics
Ground transportation
A shuttle bus service, ''Aerobus (199)'' operated by ATV, connects Verona-Villafranca Airport directly with
Verona Porta Nuova station.
During the summer months (June to September), ATV (Verona) buses 164, 183 and 184 additionally provide hourly connections between Verona-Villafranca Airport en route to comunes along
Lake Garda/Lago di Garda.
Incidents and accidents
On 13 December 1995,
Banat Air Flight 166, an
Antonov An-24
The Antonov An-24 (Russian/Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) ( NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by Kyiv, Ir ...
(YR-AMR), operated by
Romavia for
Banat Air, crashed into the ground shortly after takeoff from Verona Airport due to a stall. The reason was that the machine had not been
de-iced despite snowfall. In addition, it was overloaded by at least two tons. All 49 people on board were killed.
References
External links
Official website*
*
{{authority control
Airports in Veneto
Transport in Verona
Transport in Veneto
Buildings and structures in the Province of Verona