Verona Villafranca Airport

Verona Airport
Aeroporto di Verona-Villafranca
W
Summary
Airport type Civil / Military
Operator GardaAeroporti
Serves Verona, Italy
Location Villafranca di Verona
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL 240 ft / 73 m
Coordinates 45°23′47″N 010°53′17″E / 45.39639°N 10.88806°E / 45.39639; 10.88806 (Verona Airport)Coordinates: 45°23′47″N 010°53′17″E / 45.39639°N 10.88806°E / 45.39639; 10.88806 (Verona Airport)
Website aeroportoverona.it
Map
VRN
Location of the airport in Italy
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
04/22 3,068 10,064 Bituminous
Helipads
Number Length Surface
m ft
H1 35 × 26 110 × 85 Concrete
Statistics (2017)
Passengers 3.098.683
Passenger change 16-17 Increase 10,36%
Aircraft movements 30.392
Movements change 16-17 Increase 5,57%

Verona Villafranca Airport (IATA: VRN, ICAO: LIPX), also known as Valerio Catullo Airport or Villafranca Airport, is located 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of Verona, 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, Brescia, Mantua (Mantova) and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.

History

Early years

Villafranca Air Base was a military airport during the First World War. 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 (Villafranca di Verona and Sommacampagna), Lombardy (Province of Brescia), Trentino (second main shareholder) and Alto Adige/Südtirol.

Expansion in 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) on the occasion of World Cup 1990).

In 1995, the airport has 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 and Rome Fiumicino Airport.

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 has undertaken 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 Region, Luca Zaia. 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 has doubled. Hence Terminal 1 is used solely for departures and Terminal 2 for arrivals.

Current Development: 2010s

Air traffic has continued to grow during the 2010s with 3,385,794 passengers recorded in 2011. After a European Union 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.[1][2]

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 flies between Verona and Helsinki and AirBaltic 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.

Facilities

Check-in area

Verona-Villafranca Airport is equipped with a fog-dispersal device, which remains the best solution available in Italy and abroad to date, 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 75 m (246 ft). The runway is certified for ILS Category IIIb approach.[3]

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

AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines Seasonal: Athens
Aer Lingus Dublin
Aeroflot Moscow-Sheremetyevo
airBaltic Seasonal: Riga
Air Dolomiti Frankfurt, Munich
Air Italy Seasonal: Olbia
Air Moldova Chișinău
AlbaStar Seasonal charter: Lourdes
Alitalia Rome–Fiumicino
Seasonal: Catania, Ibiza[4]
Austrian Airlines Seasonal charter: Stockholm–Arlanda[5]
Blu-express Tirana
Seasonal: Lampedusa
Blue Panorama Airlines Mombasa, La Romana
BMI Regional Seasonal charter: Bristol
British Airways London–Gatwick
Cyprus Airways Seasonal: Larnaca[6]
Danish Air Transport Seasonal charter: Odense[7]
easyJet London–Gatwick
El Al Tel-Aviv Ben Gurion
Ellinair Seasonal: Thessaloniki
Enter Air Seasobal charter: Katowice, Poznan, Warsaw–Chopin[8]
Ernest Airlines Tirana
Seasonal: Bucharest, Iași
Seasonal charter: Belfast–International,[9] Dublin[10]
Eurowings Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn
Finnair Seasonal: Helsinki
Flybe Seasonal: Southampton, Cardiff
Seasonal charter: Glasgow, Manchester
FlyOne Chișinău
Icelandair Seasonal charter: Reykjavík[11]
Jet2.com Seasonal: Belfast-International, Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford
Neos Boa Vista, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Marsa Alam, Nosy Be,[12] Sal, Tenerife–South
Seasonal: Havana, La Romana, Malé, Mombasa,[13] Montego Bay, Rhodes, Sharm El Sheikh, Tel Aviv–Ben Gurion ,[12] Zanzibar[14]
Seasonal charter: Lanzarote
Norwegian Air Shuttle Seasonal: Oslo–Gardermoen
Nouvelair Seasonal: Monastir
Red Wings Airlines Seasonal charter: Moscow-Domodedovo[15]
Ryanair Berlin–Schönefeld, Birmingham, Charleroi, London–Stansted, Palermo, Cagliari, Hamburg, Madrid, Seville, Brindisi
S7 Airlines Moscow–Domodedovo
Seasonal: Saint Petersburg
SmartWings Seasonal charter: Warsaw-Chopin
Thomas Cook Airlines Seasonal charter: Manchester
Transavia Seasonal: Amsterdam
TUI Airways Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, London–Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
Tunisair Seasonal: Djerba, Monastir
Ural Airlines Seasonal: Krasnodar
Volotea Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Naples, Palermo
Seasonal: Alghero, Cork, Faro, Heraklion, Ibiza, Lamezia Terme,[16] Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Pantelleria, Santorini, Lampedusa, Minorca, Mykonos, Tirana,
Vueling Seasonal: Barcelona
Wizz Air Seasonal: London-Luton (begins 15 December 2018),[17] Warsaw–Chopin

Statistics

Year Passengers
2004 2 612 459
2005 2 581 420
2006 2 961 377
2007 3 465 369
2008 3 366 766
2009 3 007 615
2010 2 983 483
2011 3 385 794
2012 3 152 081
2013 2 685 702
2014 2 755 171
2015 2 570 468
2016 2 807 811
2017 2 928 846 (Jan-Nov)

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.

References

  1. ↑ "'Contract Too Costly'". Corriera Della Serra. 28 September 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Italian Airport Movement Stats June 2013". Assaeroporti. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Verona Airport – Company Profile Archived 21 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine., retrieved 12 January 2008.
  4. ↑ http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/270658/alitalia-s17-short-haul-routes-additions-as-of-01jan17/
  5. ↑ http://italiavola.com/2016/01/30/austrian-airlines-da-stoccolma-a-verona-per-i-charter-neve/
  6. ↑ https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/275887/cyprus-airways-outlines-new-routes-in-s18/?highlight=cyprus
  7. ↑ "Afgange" (in Danish). Hans Christian Andersen Airport. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  8. ↑ http://italiavola.com/2016/01/30/enter-air-aumenta-i-suoi-voli-su-verona/
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "Flight Timetable". TUI Airways. 10 February 2018.
  11. ↑ http://italiavola.com/2016/01/30/icelandair-ha-iniziato-i-voli-charter-neve-su-verona/
  12. 1 2 "timtable". neosair.it. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  13. ↑ http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/274596/neos-adds-verona-east-africa-service-from-dec-2017/
  14. ↑ http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/274596/neos-adds-verona-east-africa-service-from-dec-2017/
  15. ↑ http://www.domodedovo.ru/en/passengers/flight/timetable/
  16. ↑ https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/277998/volotea-schedules-additional-routes-in-s18/
  17. ↑ https://wizzair.com/en-gb/information-and-services/about-us/news/2018/06/18/wizz-air-announces-four-new-winter-routes-from-london-luton#/

Media related to Verona Airport at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.