Florence Airport FLR
Florence-Peretola Airport (IATA: FLR, ICAO: LIRQ) is an Italian international airport serving Florence, entitled to the famous Floral navigator Amerigo Vespucci, born in Peretola.
The airport is operated by Toscana Aeroports S.p.A., a private law company with an absolute majority holding held by the Argentine holding company Corporación América.
Open to both domestic and international passenger traffic, 2 719 081 passengers transited in 2018. It has 40 check-in desks, 10 boarding gates and is equipped with a 1 750 m long asphalt track and 30 m wide.
Florence airport
The 8th State Police Flight Department with 3 AB 206 helicopters and 2 A 109 helicopters is stationed at the airport.
It is located in an airway 5,25 km north-west of the station of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and 6 km from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in the suburb of Peretola near the district of Novoli (part of the district decentralized district called ‘Quarter 5 – Refredi’).
Florence Airport History
A first flight camp was born in 1910 in Florence in the Camp of Mars (area of the current communal stadium) and had two runways 700 meters long. In 1926, wanting to set up a regular air service, Campo de Marte and its runway narrowed down to housing proved inadequate and a decision was made to find a new location.
1920s – 1940s
In 1928, the airport’s seat was identified: the plain between the Castello and the Siesto Fiorentino area.
The airport Peretola was opened on 4 June 1931,thanks to the Balbo Law, which promoted civil and military aviation. Peretola was a large meadow where the planes landed and took off without a forced direction until the Ministry of Air Force decided to extend and strengthen the now historic flight field. In 1938-39, a track was built in macadam 60 meters wide and 1,000 meters long, facing northeast.
In the years of fascism, Peretola was the headquarters of a platoon of preavengers and the routes of the Littoria were held on a weekly basis, but the airport did not play a leading role at regional level, always in the background of the more climate-friendly Pisa-San Giusto airport. Despite this, Florence was a center of excellence in the national landscape for aeronautical warfare production and pilots training, with the Air War School, the Fiat in Novoli (which also produced spare parts for airplanes), the Vittorio Emanuele tunnels (to protect any strategic work in the event of war), the Iti Leonardo da Vinci hangar in Rifredi (which hosted the airplanes) motorists).
It is the late 1940s that the first passenger flights with the DC-3 from the Teseo plane arrive, but the same A11 motorway and the Guidoni Avenue (not by chance, called an aviation pioneer) favored connections with Pisa and its largest airport.
1950s – 1970s Florence airport As Florence became increasingly the destination of international tourism, the intention to provide the city with a more suitable airport began to be heard more insistently. In the 1950s architect Nustrini had already planned three possible development plans, including the construction of a new runway parallel to the motorway on the opposite side of the river, the Osmannoro. Since 1954, there has been an even more radical hypothesis: to abandon Peretola in favor of a new airport to be created in the category C continental category in the areas of Sant’Angelo in Lecore and St George in Colonica to the municipality of Prato. In the 1950s and 1960s, Alitalia, also with the DC-3, operated the Rome-Florence-Venice and Rome-Florence-Milan routes. Since 1964, ATI operated with the Fokker F27 on certain domestic routes until 1973. From 1976 to 1979 Avioligure used, with considerable success, two Soviet-made Yak-40 for the Florence-Rome and Florence-Milan routes, then Florence-Turin and finally also an experimental flight with Zurich. From 1983 to 1985, Aligiulia operated regular flights between Florence and Rome and Florence-Milan with Nord 262.
1980s – 1990s Two planes at the airport, in the background, the dome of Brunelleschi and Giotto’s bell tower In 1984 SAF was born (Fiorentino airport), then MoF (Florence airport). In the same year, the renovation of the entire airport will take place: runway elongation (1 000 to 1 400 meters) and its illumination, installation of the VOR-DME, and reconstruction of the terminal. On 15 September 1986 scheduled flights resumed. In 1990, it named the airport to the famous Floral navigator Amerigo Vespucci. In 1992, the inauguration of the arrival terminal and, after two years, the departure side. The final quantum leap took place in 1996 with the further extension of 350 meters of the runway and the further fitting of the terminal.
2000 to date Outdoor roof Eduardo eurnekian, owner of Corporación América Italia S.p.A., majority shareholder of the Florentine airport In 2006, the airport closed for 65 days, as it was necessary to complete the refurbishment of the runway in order to adapt it to the increased weight of new aircraft which had affected the stability of the old runway. With an investment of approximately EUR 12,4 million in 2006 (flight path interventions) and of approximately EUR 5,3 million between 2005 and 2006 (terminal renovation), AdF brought the main infrastructure at Florence airport to maximum operational efficiency and increased the overall capacity of the airport from EUR 1 500 00 2 200 000 passengers/year, with appropriate service levels. The total investments made during the financial year 2006 amounted to EUR 19,389 million. Landing in Florence seen by an E-195 Embraer of Air Dolomiti The work resulted in the airline Sterling including flights from Florence to Copenhagen and Oslo with the Boeing 737. In 2006, commercial passengers (line + charter) totaled 1 520 621 despite the closure of the airport from 2 February to 8 April 2006. Passengers arriving and departing at Florence airport (line + charter) in the period January-June 2007 were 912 757, an increase of 69.4% compared to 2006. The first half of 2007 saw positive progress in air traffic not only in comparison with the corresponding period in 2006, conditional on the closure of the Florentine airport for the refurbishment of the flight path.
In November 2009, the project for the construction of the new airport terminal was presented by AdF, which is expected to increase passenger traffic capacity to 2,4 million per year. In December 2011, the new reception hall at the terminal designed by London’s Pascal and Watson studio was opened. The full opening of the first phase of the new terminal took place in the summer of 2012. The project to extend the western square of 36 870 M ² has been approved, which will join the 33 000 M ²; Until 2011, it was one of the main airports of Meridiana, which also had an operational base there. The current runway is located at its ends between the slopes of Mount Morello and the motorway, causing noise pollution on the dwelling extending along the take-off and landing path. On December 5, 2012, Vueling announced the opening of a new base of operations from March 31, 2013 at the airport, from which he would fly to seven destinations in Europe: Hamburg, Barcelona, Berlin-Tegel, Copenhagen, London-Heathrow, Madrid and Paris-Orly[6] On 23 April 2013, the 1st batch of enlargement and upgrading of the terminal was completed. On November 20, 2013, Vueling announces more expansion from Florence: A second Airbus A319 will be based, new routes opened in Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Ibiza, Mikonos, Santorini and Palermo. Since 1 June 2015, the private company managing the airport has been Toscana Aeroports S.p.a., created by the merger to incorporate Florence S.p.A. airport. (AdF) in Toscano Airport Galileo Galilei S.p.A. (SAT) of Pisa, controlled by the majority of Corporación América Italia S.p.A., owned by the Armenian-Argentine tycoon Eduardo Eurnekian.