Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport

Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport (Italian: Aeroporto di Bari-Karol Wojtyła) (IATA: BRI, ICAO: LIBD) is an airport serving the city of Bari in Italy. It is approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) northwest from the town centre. Named after Pope John Paul II, who was born Karol Wojtyła, the airport is also known as Palese Airport (Italian: Aeroporto di Palese) after a nearby neighbourhood. The airport handled 3,289,239 passengers in 2021.[1]

Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport

Aeroporto di Bari-Karol Wojtyła
Summary
Airport typePublic-Civil-Military
OperatorAeroporti di Puglia
ServesBari, Italy
Focus city forRyanair
Elevation AMSL187 ft / 57 m
Coordinates41°08′19.88″N 16°45′38.14″E
Websiteaeroportidipuglia.it
Map
BRI
Location of the airport in Italy
BRI
BRI (Italy)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
07/25 9,842 3,000 Asphalt
Statistics (2021)
Passengers3,289,239
Passenger change 2020-2021 93.1%
Movements32,939
Movements change 2020-2021 53.0%
Cargo (tons)2,402
Cargo change 2020-2021 -4.5%
Statistics from Assaeroporti[1]

History

Early years

The airport of Bari was originally a military airfield, built in the 1930s, by the Regia Aeronautica. During World War II Italian Campaign, 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 Force and the United States Army Air Forces Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces 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 Force (Aviazione Cobelligerante Italiana, or ACI), or Air Force of the South (Aeronautica del Sud), and the Balkan Air Force. After the war, it was turned over to the postwar Air Force of the Italian Republic (Aeronautica Militare Italiana).

In the 1960s, it was opened to civil flights and Alitalia schedules regular flights to Rome, Catania, Palermo, Ancona, Venice. The routes were later taken over by ATI, using a Fokker F27 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 a cargo terminal, but it became in fact the airport's new passenger terminal.

Development since the 1990s

In 1990, with the 1990 FIFA 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. They were upgraded in 2005–2006 with the opening of a new passenger terminal equipped with 4 jet bridges and a multistorey car park.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled, seasonal, and charter flights to and from Bari:[2]

AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines Seasonal: Athens
Air Cairo Sharm El Sheikh
Air Dolomiti Munich
Air France Seasonal: Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Air Serbia Seasonal: Belgrade
Albawings Tirana
Austrian Airlines Seasonal: Vienna
BH Air Seasonal charter: Sofia (begins 28 May 2023)[3]
British Airways Seasonal: London–Gatwick
easyJet Milan–Malpensa
Seasonal: Basel/Mulhouse, London–Gatwick, Nantes, Nice (begins 26 June 2023),[4] Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Edelweiss Air Seasonal: Zurich (begins 31 March 2023)[5]
Eurowings Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart
Eurowings Discover Seasonal: Frankfurt
Iberia Seasonal: Madrid
ITA Airways Milan–Linate, Rome–Fiumicino
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Luxair Luxembourg
Norwegian Air Shuttle Seasonal: Oslo (begins 22 June 2023)[6]
Ryanair Alghero, Beauvais, Bergamo, Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, Cagliari, Catania, Charleroi, Genoa, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Kaunas (begins 28 March 2023),[7] Kraków, London–Stansted, Maastricht, Madrid, Malta, Milan–Malpensa, Palermo, Pisa, Porto, Prague, Rome–Fiumicino, Seville, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Trieste, Turin, Valencia, Venice, Verona, Vienna, Warsaw–Modlin, Weeze
Seasonal: Alicante, Billund, Bordeaux, Dublin, Edinburgh, Ibiza, Marseille, Nuremberg, Poznań (begins 26 March 2023),[8] Skiathos (begins 4 July 2023)[9]
Scandinavian Airlines Seasonal: Copenhagen
Transavia Amsterdam
Seasonal: Paris–Orly
Turkish Airlines Istanbul
Volotea Seasonal: Athens, Florence (begins 7 April 2023),[10] Heraklion, Lyon, Mykonos, Olbia (begins 28 May 2023),[11] Santorini, Skiathos, Zakynthos
Vueling Barcelona, Paris–Orly
Wizz Air Bucharest, Budapest, Cluj-Napoca, Sofia, Timișoara, Tirana, Vienna (ends 19 February 2023),[12] Warsaw–Chopin
Seasonal: Iași (ends 21 March 2023), Wrocław

Statistics

Departure area
Control tower
Annual passenger traffic at BRI airport. See Wikidata query.

Ground transportation

Road

The airport can be reached by the ring road of Bari and from the A14 motorway.

Rail

The Bari metropolitan railway service connects the Airport with the Bari Centrale railway station in the city centre.

Bus

AMTAB buses provide public transportation to the airport from the city centre (Line 16). Pugliairbus is a seasonal bus transportation service which operates interconnection service with Brindisi and Foggia airports. Pugliairbus also reaches touristic locations.

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

  1. "Statistics" (PDF). Assaeroporti.
  2. aeroportidipuglia.it - Bari - Destinations www.aeroportidipuglia.it accessed 25 May 2022
  3. https://www.onextour.bg/offer/puglia
  4. https://www.aviomedia.net/2023/01/17/easyjet-mette-in-vendita-8-nuove-rotte-internazionali-per-volare-da-e-per-litalia/
  5. "EDELWEISS NS23 EUROPE NETWORK ADDITIONS".
  6. "Norwegian NS23 Oslo Routes Addition -17NOV22". aeroroutes.com. 17 November 2022.
  7. Select Kaunas to Bari www.ryanair.com accessed 19 November 2022
  8. Nowe połączenia z lotniska Poznań-Ławica. Ryanair uruchamia dwa atrakcyjne kierunki! (tr. "New connections from the Poznań-Ławica airport. Ryanair launches two attractive destinations!") 17 November 2022 gloswielkopolski.pl accessed 19 November 2022
  9. "RYANAIR NS23 NETWORK ADDITIONS – 11DEC22".
  10. Italiavola & Travel italiavola.com accessed 19 November 2022
  11. https://italiavola.com/2023/01/26/volotea-e-olbia-la-piu-grande-base-italiana-nel-2023-scalza-venezia/
  12. "Wizz Air cuts three routes from Vienna".
  13. "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 19 November 2022.

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