Falcone Borsellino Airport () or simply Palermo Airport, formerly Punta Raisi Airport, is an international airport located at

Cinisi Cinisi (; ) is a town and a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily. As of 1 January 2022 it has a population of 11.846. Geography The town is part of the Palermo metropolitan area, borders with the municipalities of Carini an ...

, west-northwest of

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, the capital city of the Italian island of

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. It is the second biggest airport in Sicily in terms of passengers after Catania-Fontanarossa Airport, with 7,118,087 passengers handled in 2022.

History

The airport was given the name ''Falcone Borsellino'' in memory of the two leading

anti-mafia The Antimafia Commission () is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senate of the Republic. The first commission, formed in 1963, was established ...

judges

Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...

and

Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...

who were murdered by the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...

in 1992. A plaque featuring their portraits can be found to the right of one of the main outside entrances to the departure hall, set into a mosaic of Sicily. Created by the Sicilian sculptor Tommaso Geraci, it bears the inscription ''Giovanni Falcone–Paolo Borsellino–Gli Altri–L'orgoglio della Nuova Sicilia'' (''Giovanni Falcone–Paolo Borsellino–The Others–The Pride of the New Sicily''). In 1994, GESAP was charged with the partial management of the airport through a convention which granted the company a 20-year mandate to run land-side activities (the airport buildings and surrounding areas). In April 1999, GESAP obtained an anticipated mandate to manage the airport's air side activities, and, more specifically, the flight infrastructure (runways, links, taxiways and aprons). In June 2005,

Eurofly Eurofly was a privately owned airline based in Milan, Italy. Listed on MTA Stock Exchange and controlled by Meridiana, it was Italy's leading carrier in the leisure flights market and mainly operated international, medium to long haul, point- ...

launched seasonal flights from Palermo to New York City using Airbus A330s. The company merged with Meridiana in 2010 to create

Meridiana Fly Meridiana Fly S.p.A., operating as Meridiana (formerly named ''Meridiana S.p.A.''), was a privately owned Italian airline headquartered in Olbia with its main base at Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport. It operated scheduled and charter flights to do ...

, which continued the service. As a result of Meridiana Fly's decision to rebrand as Air Italy, the route ended in October 2017. Neos commenced a summer-seasonal route in June 2024 with

Boeing 787 Dreamliner The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, wh ...

s, reconnecting Palermo to New York–JFK. From May 2025 also

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

will commence a new summer-seasonal service between the two cities, connecting the Sicilian city to Newark, near

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, using

Boeing 767-400 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified o ...

Management

GESAP S.p.a. is the airport management company of the airport. It has a fully paid-up share capital of €15,912,332 divided between the Regional

Province of Palermo The province of Palermo (; Sicilian: ''pruvincia di Palermu'') was a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital was the city of Palermo. On 4 August 2015, it was replaced by the Metropolitan City o ...

, the

Comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

, the Chamber of Commerce, the

and other minor partners.

Airlines and destinations

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

Statistics

Accidents and incidents

* On 5 May 1972,

Alitalia Flight 112 Alitalia Flight 112 was a scheduled flight from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, in Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport in Palermo, Italy, with 115 on board. On 5 May 1972, it crashed into Mount Longa, about southwest of Palermo while on ...

flew into Mt. Longa on approach to Palermo Airport. All 115 aboard were killed. * On 23 December 1978,

Alitalia Flight 4128 Alitalia Flight 4128 was a scheduled flight from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, in Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport in Palermo, Italy, with 129 on board. On 23 December 1978, it crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea about north of Palermo wh ...

crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea while on approach to Palermo Airport. * On 6 August 2005,

Tuninter Flight 1153 Tuninter Flight 1153 was a Tuninter Airlines flight from Bari International Airport in Italy, to Djerba-Zarzis Airport on the Tunisian island of Djerba. On 6 August 2005, the Tuninter ATR 72 ditched into the Mediterranean Sea about 18 miles (29&n ...

, an

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR. The number "72" in its name is derived from the aircraft's typical standard seating capacity of 72 pa ...

–500, ran out of fuel while en route and ditched about from the city of

. 16 of the 39 people on board died. * On 24 September 2010, Wind Jet Flight 243, operated by Airbus A319-132 EI-EDM, landed short of the runway after encountering a

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

and

windshear Wind shear (; also written windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical ...

on approach. The aircraft was substantially damaged when it impacted the localiser. Both main undercarriage sets collapsed and the aircraft was evacuated by the emergency slides. Around 20 passengers were injured in the evacuation.

Ground transport

Train

The airport's railway facility,

Punta Raisi railway station Palermo Aeroporto railway station (), formerly known as ''Punta Raisi railway station'', is located within Palermo Airport () (IATA code: PMO) in Cinisi, near Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Opened in 2004, the station is the northwestern terminus of ...

, is the northwestern terminus of

Palermo metropolitan railway service The Palermo metropolitan railway service is a commuter rail system operated by Trenitalia. It serves the city of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. Lines There are two lines: * Palermo Centrale Punta Raisi (airport) * Palermo Notarbartolo Giachery Bo ...

. It links the airport with

Palermo Centrale railway station Palermo Centrale is the main railway station of the Italian city of Palermo, capital of Sicily. It is one of the most important "Ferrovie dello Stato, FS" stations of Italy. Along with Catania Centrale railway station, Catania Centrale, Messina ...

. A typical timetable on work days is a train every 30 minutes in each direction between early morning and around 10.00 pm.

Bus

There are several private bus companies, which stop at the bus station outside the terminal building and connect the airport with nearby

city. There are further connections to/from Palermo,

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, 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 216,918 inhabitants ...

and rest of

References

External links

Official website
* * {{authority control Airport, Punta Raisi Airports in Sicily Metropolitan City of Palermo