Bari "Karol Wojtyła" International Airport is an airport serving the city of
BariBari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. It is approximately 8 km (5 miles) northwest from the town center. The airport is also known as
Palese Airport after a nearby neighborhood.
The airport's facilities have been upgraded in 2005-2006 with the opening of a new passenger terminal equipped with 4 loading bridges, a new control tower and a multistorey car park.
The airport handled 2.486.154 passengers in 2008.
The airport of Bari was originally a military airfield, built in the 1930s by the
Regia AeronauticaThe Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy . It was established as a service independent of the Italian Royal Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolished and the Kingdom of Italy became the Republic of Italy...
.
Bari "Karol Wojtyła" International Airport is an airport serving the city of
BariBari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. It is approximately 8 km (5 miles) northwest from the town center. The airport is also known as
Palese Airport after a nearby neighborhood.
The airport's facilities have been upgraded in 2005-2006 with the opening of a new passenger terminal equipped with 4 loading bridges, a new control tower and a multistorey car park.
The airport handled 2.486.154 passengers in 2008.
History
The airport of Bari was originally a military airfield, built in the 1930s by the
Regia AeronauticaThe Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy . It was established as a service independent of the Italian Royal Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolished and the Kingdom of Italy became the Republic of Italy...
. During the
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Italian CampaignItalian Campaign can refer to:*Italian campaign of 1524–1525, fought during the Italian War of 1521*Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought by Napoleon Bonaparte between 1796-1797...
it was seized by the British Eighth Army in late September 1943 and turned into an Allied military airfield. Until the end of the war in May 1945, it was used by the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
and the
United States Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. It was a component of the United States Army, divided functionally by executive order in 1942 into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the...
Twelfth and
Fifteenth Air ForceThe Fifteenth Expeditionary Mobility Task Force is one of two EMTFs assigned to the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command. It is headquartered at Travis Air Force Base, California...
s both as an operational airfield as well as a command and control base. In addition the airfield was used by the
Italian Co-Belligerent Air ForceThe Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force , or Air Force of the South , was the air force of the Royalist "Badoglio government". The ACI was formed in southern Italy in October 1943 after the Italian Armistice in September...
(Aviazione Cobelligerante Italiana, or ACI), or Air Force of the South (Aeronautica del Sud). After the war it was turned over to the post-war Air Force of the Italian Republic (Aeronautica Militare Italiana).
In the 1960s it was opened to civil flights and
AlitaliaAlitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. , now known as Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. in Extraordinary Administration, was the former Italian flag carrier...
schedules regular flights to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
,
CataniaCatania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse...
,
PalermoPalermo is a historic city in Southern Italy, the capital of the autonomous region Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its rich history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
,
AnconaAncona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101,909 . Ancona is situated on the Adriatic Sea and is the center of the province of Ancona and the capital of the region....
,
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
. The routes were later taken over by ATI, using a
Fokker F27The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker.-Design and development:Design of the Fokker F27 started in the 1950s as a replacement to the successful DC-3 airliner...
airplane. When ATI put into operation the new DC-9-30 it became necessary to create a new runway, while the military complex was still used as passenger terminal.
In 1981 a new building was completed, originally intended to be used as cargo terminal, but it became in fact the airport’s new passengers terminal. In 1990, with the football World Cup, the runway was extended and the terminal was upgraded, going through a further renovation in 2000.
However, the traffic increase showed the infrastructural limitations of the airport and in 2002 the founding stone of the new passenger terminal was laid out. At the same time, flight infrastructures (aircraft parking areas, runway etc.) were upgraded. In 2005, the new terminal was completed and opened to passengers.
In 2005, construction works for a new control tower began and they were completed the following year. In 2006 a further extension of the runway was begun, and in 2007 the planning of an extension of the passenger terminals was commissioned.
Airlines and destinations
Accidents and incidents
- On 6 August 2005, Tuninter Flight 1153
Tuninter Flight 1153 was a Tuninter flight from Bari International Airport in Bari, Italy, to Djerba-Zarzis Airport in Djerba, Tunisia. On 6 August 2005 the ATR-72 on the route, TS-LBB "Habib Bourguiba", ran out of fuel and ditched into the ocean....
, a TuninterSevenair , formerly known as Tuninter is an airline based in Tunisia and operates internal, short-distance flights as part of Tunisair.- Destinations :...
ATR 72 en route from Bari to DjerbaDjerba is, at 514 km², the largest island off North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:The climate is mild and the soil well cultivated...
, TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
, ditched into the Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
about 18 miles from the city of PalermoPalermo is a historic city in Southern Italy, the capital of the autonomous region Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its rich history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
. Sixteen of the 39 people on board died. The accident resulted from engine fuel starvation due to the installation of ATR 42 fuel quantity indicators in the ATR 72.
External links