Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Comiso Airport, known as Vincenzo Magliocco Airport or "Pio La Torre" Airport, lies near the town of Comiso in the Province of Ragusa in south-eastern Sicily. Once a military airfield dating from the late 1930s, it was rebuilt for civil use in the 2000s and now offers a single long, ILS-equipped runway that makes it a useful diversion and destination for both scheduled and general aviation traffic in the region.
Comiso Airport serves the town of Comiso and the wider Ragusa province in south-eastern Sicily, with Ragusa, Vittoria and Gela all within easy reach. Originally built as a military aerodrome in the 1930s, it was converted for civil use in the 2000s and today handles scheduled and charter flights, making it of interest to a simulator pilot as a modern regional airport built on older military foundations, with a long paved runway and full ILS approach.
The airfield sits at the foot of the Hyblaean Mountains (Monti Iblei) in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, at an elevation of 705 feet. It lies close to the town of Comiso, with Ragusa, Vittoria and Gela all in the surrounding area, placing the field within the general airspace environment of south-eastern Sicily.
Comiso has a single physical runway, 05/23, of hard surface construction and 8,319 feet in length (measured from the 23 threshold; 7,874 feet from the 05 threshold), with lighting on both directions. The 05 end is equipped with an ILS approach.
The aerodrome operates under the ICAO code LICB and IATA code CIY. An ILS is available on 108.9 MHz for the instrument runway. No other radio frequency details are available.
The airfield originated as a military aerodrome, with construction beginning in 1935 and completed in 1939. In the late 1990s it was used for the Rainbow Mission (Missione Arcobaleno), housing around 5,000 Kosovar refugees during the war in the former Yugoslavia, temporarily settled in accommodation vacated by United States military personnel who had left in 1991. The transition from military to civil airport began in the early 2000s, and refurbishment work to reactivate the site started in 2004, continuing through the winter of 2008. The first civil flight departed on 30 April 2007 following the inauguration of a new runway and a period of testing, though the airport did not fully open to commercial and general aviation until 30 May 2013. It was later renamed after Pio La Torre. On 17 July 2023, a fire at Catania Airport closed that airport's main terminal, and a considerable proportion of the diverted air traffic, including flights from non-Schengen countries, was redirected to Comiso.
Comiso now functions as a civil airport handling both scheduled and charter traffic, with an instrument landing system supporting approaches to its main runway. It has also served as a diversion airport for traffic normally destined for Catania.
