Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport (LIEO/OLB) serves the city of Olbia on Sardinia's north-east coast, handling scheduled and seasonal holiday traffic from across Europe. It is operated by Geasar S.p.A. and offers a single long, lit runway with ILS, making it accessible to a wide range of aircraft under both VFR and IFR.
Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport lies on the north-east coast of Sardinia, serving the town of Olbia and the wider Costa Smeralda holiday region. It is operated by Geasar S.p.A. and was, for a period, the primary operating base of the Italian airline Air Italy. The field mostly handles seasonal holiday charter and scheduled flights from destinations across Europe, alongside year-round domestic services, and was renamed in 2025 to Olbia-Costa Smeralda-Prince Karim Aga Khan IV Airport following the death of Karim Aga Khan IV. For a simulator pilot it is an interesting Mediterranean destination combining a substantial single-runway commercial operation with striking coastal scenery on approach.
The airport sits close to the town of Olbia in Sardinia, Italy, at coordinates 40.8986, 9.5178. It is served by its own radar approach and tower control, indicating controlled airspace around the field with an approach service extending out from the aerodrome.
The airport has a single physical runway, 05/23, with a hard surface (concrete/asphalt) and runway lighting. The 05 threshold gives a length of about 8,010 ft while 23 gives about 8,009 ft, and both directions are served by an ILS. Field elevation is 30 ft.
Radio services are provided under the callsign Olbia on the following frequencies: Olbia Radar (approach) on 125.95 MHz, Olbia Tower on 118.975 MHz, and an ATIS broadcast on 113.9 MHz. An ILS is available for the runway, supporting instrument approaches into LIEO.
A military airfield was first opened at Olbia, then known as Terranova Pausania, in 1921, and a seaplane base was inaugurated near the Isola Bianca harbour in 1927, though poor traffic on the Ostia and Cagliari seaplane routes led to services from Terranova being discontinued by 1929. Both the airfield and seaplane base were targeted by Allied bombing during the Second World War, during which the occupying Germans opened the Venafiorita airfield some 7.2 kilometres south of the town; the Olbia name was restored to the airfield in 1945. Commercial flights gradually resumed, and in 1963 the Olbia-based airline Alisarda was formed, expanding its network and introducing jet flights in 1972 before being renamed Meridiana in 1991. The move to jet aircraft required a larger airport nearer the city, and the current airport was completed in 1974. A major new terminal, covering 42,000 square metres and designed to handle 4.5 million passengers a year, was unveiled in June 2004 at a cost of 81 million euros, incorporating the original terminal building. From February to March 2020 the airport closed to refurbish and extend its taxiways and runway, and this closure was extended into June 2020 because of measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. In 2025 the airport was renamed Olbia-Costa Smeralda-Prince Karim Aga Khan IV Airport in tribute to Karim Aga Khan IV, reflecting his association with the development of the nearby Costa Smeralda coastline.
The airport is managed by Geasar S.p.A. and today handles a mix of year-round domestic services and a much larger seasonal programme of scheduled and charter flights linking Olbia with destinations across Europe during the spring-to-autumn holiday season. It was formerly the operating base of Air Italy. The single 05/23 runway, lit and equipped with ILS on both directions, together with radar approach and tower control, supports a substantial volume of commercial traffic through the field.