Marche Airport () , formerly Ancona Falconara Airport (), is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

serving

Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...

and the

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

region of central Italy. The airport is located approximately west of Ancona, in

Falconara Marittima Falconara Marittima is a seaside resort on the Adriatic coast, in Italy, located north of Ancona, in the Marche region, province of Ancona. History Falconara developed around a castle. In the second half of the 16th century it was bought by the n ...

. It was also known as ''Raffaello Sanzio Airport'', named after

Raffaello Sanzio Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of compos ...

(1483–1520), the Italian painter and architect.

History

The first proposal to build and manage an airport in the

region by a local authority emerged in 1929, initiated by the

Province of Ancona The province of Ancona () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Marche region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Ancona, and the province borders the Adriatic Sea. The city of Ancona is also the capital of Marche. To the north, the province ...

. It was through the Province's efforts that the history of Marche Airport began, constructed with authorisation from the

Ministry of Aeronautics The Ministry of the Air Force () was a department of the Kingdom of Italy, and subsequently of the Italian Republic, with jurisdiction over both military and civil aviation. Established in 1925, it was abolished in 1947 when it merged with the ...

in the Contrada Fiumesino area of Falconara. Initially designated as a military emergency landing field for aircraft forced to make an unscheduled descent, the airfield was developed at a cost of 2,000,000 lire for the Province. In 1933, the ownership of the land was transferred to the state. Then, in 1939, Falconara received its first official recognition when it was formally registered on the national list of civil airports. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the airport was damaged and later occupied by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

, who established a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

base there in 1950. The military presence significantly delayed efforts to restore the airport. In 1960, the Province, along with other local authorities, launched a promotional initiative to enhance airport infrastructure and encourage air travel. As a result, the first regular biweekly flights to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

, and

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

were introduced in 1963, followed by connections to

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in 1964. In 1965, with an investment of 67,000,000 lire, the involved authorities constructed a new terminal building equipped with offices and essential services. On February 5, 1968, they established Aerdorica S.r.l., tasked with promoting air traffic, managing airport services, and planning the expansion of the airport to meet the growing demands of civil air transport. The company developed the airport’s master plan and acquired the land designated as the foundation for the new civil airport. Construction began in 1977, leading to the inauguration of the Raffaello Sanzio Airport near Castelferretti on July 16, 1981. A major modernisation project was completed in June 2004 with the inauguration of the new terminal, designed by Volkwin Marg, a member of

Gerkan, Marg and Partners Gerkan, Marg & Partners (gmp) is an international architectural company based in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by Meinhard von Gerkan and , and now has more than 300 employees in 13 offices. In the same year the archi ...

. Since June 2021, Ancona International Airport S.p.A. has taken over the management of the airport from Aerdorica. Alongside this transition, the airport was officially renamed Ancona International Airport – Raffaello Sanzio.

Facilities

The airport lies at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has one

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

designated 04/22 with an

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

surface measuring .

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate scheduled services:

Cargo

The following cargo services are operated at the airport:

Statistics

Ground transportation

Aerobus

The airport is connected to

and

via piazza Cavour, piazza Kennedy,

Ancona railway station Ancona railway station, sometimes called ''Ancona Centrale'',Jesi Jesi () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Ancona, in the Italian region of Marche. It is an important industrial and artistic center in the floodplain on the left (north) bank of the Esino river, before its mouth on the Adria ...

and

. People travelling on the

Autostrada A14 The Autostrada A14 or Autostrada Adriatica ("Adriatic motorway") is the second-longest () ''autostrada'' (Italian for "motorway") in Italy located in the regions of Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise and Apulia. It is a part of the E45, E5 ...

need to exit at "Ancona Nord" and join Strada statale 76 della Val d'Esino.

Railway

A small railway station, Castelferretti-Falconara Aeroporto, is situated just outside the airport. Regional trains bound to

Jesi Jesi () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Ancona, in the Italian region of Marche. It is an important industrial and artistic center in the floodplain on the left (north) bank of the Esino river, before its mouth on the Adria ...

Fabriano Fabriano is a town and ''comune'' of Ancona province in the Italian region of the Marche, at above sea level. It lies in the Esino valley upstream and southwest of Jesi; and east-northeast of Fossato di Vico and east of Gubbio (both in U ...

Foligno Foligno (; Central Italian, Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennine Mountains, Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clit ...

Orte Orte is a town, ''comune'', former Catholic bishopric and Latin titular see in the province of Viterbo, in the central Italian region of Lazio, located about north of Rome and about east of Viterbo. Geography Orte is situated in the Tiber V ...

and

departs from there.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{authority control Airports in Italy Ancona Transport in le Marche Buildings and structures in the Province of Ancona Falconara Marittima