Palermo Airport

Palermo Airport

The history of the airport at Punta Raisi dates back to 1953, the year in which the "Autonomous Consortium for Palermo Airport" was constituted.


The Consortium was established with the aim of creating an alternative to the ex-military airport of Bocca di Falco which, while being the third busiest Italian airport for national flights, was no longer able to deal with the ever-increasing level of traffic.

In March 1956 the project was officially presented to the Regional President and sent for approval to the Ministry of Defence, whose "Aeronautical Department" was responsible for examining the plans.

The process of approval lasted two years and confirmed the choices made by the Consortium, while at the same time ignoring objections from various sources regarding both the windy nature of the area, which is subject to strong turbulence caused by the surrounding mountains, and the distance from Palermo. The latter criticism referred to the access road connecting the airport to Palermo which was particularly difficult due to the fact that it passed over four level crossings of the Palermo-Trapani railway line. At a certain point the Consortium was disbanded to make way for a special "Airport Office", which was part of the Regional Government's Transport Department. This body was charged with completing the executive planning and oversaw the construction of the airport which opened its two runways (one as a taxiway) to the public in 1960.

After several months it became clear that the airport's operations were greatly penalised by winds blowing from the south and so it was decided to build another, transversal runway. At the same time a new terminal was planned which, however, due to a variety of vicissitudes, was only to open in the 1990s.

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Location

Palermo Airport 90045 Punta Raisi – Cinisi
Palermo
Italy

Contact Info
Email: 
Contact Form
Web: 
http://www.gesap.it

Palermo / Punta Raisi Weather info
Scattered clouds

Location of this weather station:
0.3 km West-Northwest
Reported on:
Fri, 2012-02-10 18:50


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