Vincenzo Florio Airport – Trapani Birgi
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Trapani Airport (it.: Aeroporto di Trapani -Birgi ) is an opened for civil aviation military airfield on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is located about fifteen kilometers south of the center of the city near the town of Trapani Birgi on the border with neighboring community Marsala.
Name
The civilian part of the airport is named after the Sicilian entrepreneur Vincenzo Florio, the founder of the winery Cantina Florio and initiator of the famous car racing Targa Florio. The military part bears the name of Livio Bassi, one originating from Trapani fighter pilot who fell in the Second World War. In ordinary language the airport " Trapani -Birgi " is named after the nearby town of Birgi and the river of the same name.
History
End of the 1920s was directly east of Trapani near the village of Milo, a military airfield, which was used until 1949. The 1,100 meter long runway was later severed from the A29dir highway. The former airfield Trapani -Milo is today the Italian Agenzia Spaziale Italiana Space Agency as a research institution.
Another military airfield was built in the 1930s, twelve kilometers south of Trapani near the village of Rilievo ( Borgo Rizzo ) on the river Chinisia. In 1949, the airport Trapani Chinisia the military flight operations from Trapani -Milo. Trapani - Chinisia was also used civil 1955-1961. With the setting of military operations, they gave the airfield in the 1970s altogether. The 1,650 -meter-long airstrip is largely preserved.
Only about three kilometers west of Trapani Chinisia the Trapani-Birgi Airport was opened in 1961. The commercial aviation evolved until its liberalization in the 1990s sluggish. The north of the airstrip located military part served since the 1970s as the advanced base for fighter aircraft. After it had come to Libya to repeated stresses, notified the Italian Air Force in 1984 a squadron (37 ° Stormo, F - 104S "Star Fighter" ) a. Shortly afterwards Trapani -Birgi also the forward base of the counterparties located in Germany Geilenkirchen NATO AWACS (E -3A " Sentry "). In addition, one stationed here rescue helicopter (15 ° Stormo, HH -3F ). Following decommissioning of the F- 104S leased the Aeronautica Militare, as a transitional solution of the U.S. combat aircraft of the type F - 16ADF "Fighting Falcon", the last airworthy specimens were returned in May 2012. Today in Trapani -Birgi some Euro Fighter Typhoon and rescue helicopters are stationed, otherwise the military part again serves as the advanced base.
From 20 March to 31 October 2011, the airport was used as a basis for the international military mission in Libya. Initially it civil airport was closed and released only partially on the tenth day of the air strikes. Numerous passenger jets were diverted to Palermo.
Development of the civil traffic
The operating company for the civilian part of the airport Airgest SpA was constituted in 1992. yet the early 2000s, the passenger volume with around 50 thousand per year was relatively small until in September 2006, the budget airline Ryanair began to fly to Trapani. Passenger numbers rose in a row at around one and a half million per year between 2010 and 2011. Ryanair offered in 2012 numerous national connections and 18 direct international connections, including to Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden and Slovakia. The airline Air One flies to Milan -Malpensa, the Darwin Airline connects Trapani with the Italian island of Pantelleria.
The nearest international airport is about eighty kilometers to Palermo- Punta Raisi.
Transport links
Renovated in 2009, the passenger terminal is located in the southeast of the airport.
- Car: Trapani, Marsala and the southwest coast of Sicily can be reached via the Strada Statale 115 Sud Occidentale sicula good, Palermo over the highway A29dirA, which begins just north of the airport and ends at Alcamo in the A29.
- Bus: AST buses connect the airport with the city center of Trapani. Terra Vision and Salemi offer boat trips to Marsala, Trapani and Palermo, Lumia travels to various cities on the southwest coast.
- Rail: The terminal does not have a rail connection. Two kilometers to the south is the railway station Mozia -Birgi, to which it, however, from the airport is no bus service. From Mozia -Birgi trains to Marsala and Castelvetrano in the south, as well as to Trapani and Palermo.