Verona Villafranca Airport

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.

"Verona Airport" redirects here. For other uses, see Verona Airport (disambiguation).

Verona Airport

Aeroporto di Verona-Villafranca
Summary
Airport typeCivil / military
OperatorGardaAeroporti
ServesVerona, Italy
LocationVillafranca di Verona
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL240 ft / 73 m
Coordinates45°23′47″N 010°53′17″E
Websiteaeroportoverona.it
Map
VRN
Location of the airport in Italy
VRN
VRN (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 (2019)
Passengers3,638,088
Passenger change 18-19 5,2%
Aircraft movements33,138
Movements change 18-19 1,5%
Statistics from Assaeroporti[1]

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 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 and Rome Fiumicino Airport.

During the Bosnian War, the airport was used by NATO aircraft as a staging area.[2]

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 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 doubled. Hence Terminal 1 is used solely for departures and Terminal 2 for arrivals.

Recent development: 2010s

Air traffic 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.[3][4]

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

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.[5]

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
Aer Lingus Dublin
Aeroflot Moscow–Sheremetyevo
Air Albania Tirana (begins 14 July 2020)
Air Dolomiti Frankfurt, Munich
Air Moldova Chișinău
AlbaStar Seasonal: Crotone, Fuerteventura
Alitalia Rome–Fiumicino
Seasonal: Catania, Ibiza
Austrian Airlines Seasonal charter: Stockholm–Arlanda[6]
Bluebird Airways Seasonal: Tel Aviv (begins 1 July 2020)[7]
Blue Panorama Airlines La Romana, Mombasa, Tirana
Seasonal: Lampedusa
British Airways London–Gatwick
Seasonal charter: Glasgow[8]
DAT Seasonal charter: Odense[9]
easyJet Amsterdam, Edinburgh, London–Gatwick, Manchester
Enter Air Seasonal charter: Katowice, Poznan, Warsaw–Chopin[10]
Eurowings Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn
Finnair Seasonal: Helsinki
FlyOne Chișinău
Iberia Regional Seasonal: Madrid
Jet2.com Seasonal: Belfast–International, Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Manchester
Neos Boa Vista, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Marsa Alam, Sal, Sharm El Sheikh, Tel Aviv, Tenerife–South
Seasonal: Brindisi, Cagliari, Cancún, Catania, Djerba (resumes 6 July 2020),[11] Dublin,[12] El Alamein (begins 7 July 2020),[13] Heraklion, Ibiza, Karpathos, Kavala (begins 6 July 2020),[14] Kos, Lamezia Terme, La Romana, Luxor, Malé, Marsa Matruh, Menorca, Mombasa, Montego Bay, Mykonos, Nosy Be, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Reykjavík–Keflavík, Rhodes, Salalah, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos, Zanzibar
Norwegian Air Shuttle Seasonal: Oslo–Gardermoen
Seasonal charter: London–Gatwick[8]
Nouvelair Seasonal: Monastir, Tunis (begins 6 July 2020)[15]
Red Wings Airlines Seasonal charter: Moscow-Domodedovo[16]
Ryanair Birmingham, Brindisi, Cagliari, Dublin (begins 2 July 2020),[17] London–Stansted, Palermo
S7 Airlines Moscow–Domodedovo
SmartWings Seasonal charter: Warsaw-Chopin
Sun d'Or Seasonal: Tel Aviv
Transavia Seasonal: Amsterdam
TUI Airways Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, London–Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
Seasonal charter: Dublin[18]
Tunisair Seasonal: Tunis
Ural Airlines Seasonal: Krasnodar
Volotea Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Naples, Olbia, Palermo
Seasonal: Alghero, Athens, Cork, Faro, Heraklion, Ibiza, Lamezia Terme, Lampedusa, Malta, Menorca, Mykonos, Palma de Mallorca, Pantelleria, Preveza/Lefkada (begins 8 July 2020),[19] Santorini, Skiathos (begins 7 July 2020),[20] Zakynthos
Vueling Seasonal: Barcelona
Wizz Air Chișinău, Iași (begins 3 August 2020),[21] Tirana[22]
Seasonal: Warsaw–Chopin

Statistics
Check-in area
Year Passengers
2000 2 293 799
2001 2 188 068
2002 2 185 785
2003 2 452 723
2004 2 687 565
2005 2 649 655
2006 3 007 965
2007 3 510 259
2008 3 402 601
2009 3 065 968
2010 3 022 784
2011 3 385 794
2012 3 198 788
2013 2 719 815
2014 2 775 616
2015 2 591 255
2016 2 807 811
2017 3 099 142
2018 2 823 558 (Jan-Sep)

Ground transportation

A shuttle bus service, Aerobus (199) operated by ATV, connects Verona-Villafranca Airport directly with Verona Porta Nuova station.[23][24] 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. Traffic Data 2019
  2. "War planes preparing for Bosnia". The Milwaukee Journal. August 1993. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  3. "Contract Too Costly". Corriera Della Serra. 28 September 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  4. "Italian Airport Movement Stats June 2013". Assaeroporti. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  5. Verona Airport – Company Profile Archived 21 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 12 January 2008.
  6. "Austrian Airlines da Stoccolma a Verona per i charter neve". 30 January 2016.
  7. Liu, Jim. "Blue Bird adds Verona service from July 2020". Routesonline. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  8. "Flight Timetable". tui.co.uk.
  9. "Afgange" (in Danish). Hans Christian Andersen Airport. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  10. "Enter Air aumenta i suoi voli su Verona". 30 January 2016.
  11. "Flight Times". neosair.it/en.
  12. "Flights Time". Neos S.p.A. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  13. "El Alamein". neosair.it/en.
  14. Liu, Jim (22 January 2020). "Neos adds Kavala service in S20". routesonline.com.
  15. Liu, Jim (20 January 2020). "Nouvelair Tunisie adds Milan / Verona scheduled charters in S20". Routesonline.
  16. http://www.domodedovo.ru/en/passengers/flight/timetable/
  17. "Ryanair Launches Irish Summer 20 Schedule – 160 Routes On Sale Now". Ryanair. 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  18. "Flight Timetable". TUI Airways. 18 January 2019.
  19. https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/287883/volotea-s20-new-routes-as-of-29nov19/
  20. https://www.volotea.com/it/sala-stampa/notizie/notizie/volotea-annuncia-a-verona-circa-1000000-di-posti-in-vendita-e-2-nuove-rotte-esclusive-per-preveza-lefkada-e-skiathos-per-un-totale-di-23-destinazioni-19-delle-quali-esclusive/
  21. https://www.cronacadiverona.com/nuove-rotte-wizzair-e-ryanair-si-vola-in-romania-e-a-dublino/
  22. https://storiedieccellenza.it/wizz-air-annuncia-5-nuove-rotte-dallitalia-a-tirana/

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