Airport type Military/public Elevation AMSL 25 ft / 8 m 13R/31L 2,695 Code TPS Province Province of Trapani Yearly aircraft movements 11,607 | Serves Trapani, Italy Website airgest.it 2,695 8,841 Elevation 7 m Phone +39 0923 610111 Passenger count 1,586,992 | |
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Address Aeroporto Vincenzo Florio Trapani-Birgi, 91100 Trapani TP, Italy | ||
Vincenzo Florio Airport Trapani–Birgi (IATA: TPS, ICAO: LICT) (Italian: Aeroporto Vincenzo Florio di Trapani-Birgi), also known simply as Trapani Airport, is a military and public airport serving Trapani, Italy. Located between Trapani and Marsala, it is one of the five civil airports in Sicily, but is also used for military purposes. In 2015, 1,586,992 passengers passed through the airport, making it the third busiest airport in Sicily. The civil airport is named to the Sicilian wine industrialist and automobile enthusiast Vincenzo Florio.
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Overview
The airport is located 8 NM (15 km; 9.2 mi) south of Trapani, and opened in the early 1960s. After a long period of inactivity the airport was relaunched by the Province of Trapani in 2003, and now hosts several flights, mainly low-cost connections.
History
Inaugurated in the 1961 as a regional airport operating very few flights, Trapani–Birgi became even less important in the 1990s, during which only a flight to Pantelleria, Palermo and Roma was operated.
The airport was relaunched in 2003 by the Province of Trapani and grew up in size after Ryanair started to use it as its main hub to Sicily, bringing several new international flights to and from Trapani. The airport has consequently been recognised as instrumental for the tourism-related economy of Western Sicily.
Italian Air Force
The military airfield is intituled to the Italian aviator Livio Bassi. The airport is a base for the "37th Fighter Wing" of the Italian Air Force with the Eurofighter Typhoon, and for the "82th CSAR" (Combat Search and Rescue) with the helicopters AgustaWestland AW139.
The airfield is one of the four forward operating bases (FOBs) used by the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control stationed out of NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen in Geilenkirchen, Germany. The airport gained international attention during Operation Unified Protector in 2011 when NATO aircraft were based there during military intervention in the Libyan Civil War.
Statistics
This table does not include passengers in transit.
Data from Assaeroporti.