Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Ciampino–G. B. Pastine International Airport (LIRA) is Rome's secondary airport, lying just outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare ring motorway south-southeast of the city centre. One of the oldest airports still in operation, it combines scheduled low-cost airline traffic with a resident Italian Air Force presence, making it a distinctive and historically rich destination for the visiting VFR or IFR pilot.
Ciampino is Rome's second international airport after Fiumicino, serving the city, its metropolitan area, Vatican City and the wider Lazio region. It is a joint civil-military field, sharing its single runway with the Italian Air Force, whose 31º Stormo and 2nd Reparto Genio are headquartered here. For the simulator pilot it offers a compact, historic aerodrome with a single long hard runway, full ILS approach and airline-level radio services, set against the backdrop of the Roman countryside just beyond the capital's ring road.
The airport sits about 6.5 nautical miles south-southeast of central Rome, just outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare, the circular motorway that encircles the city, near the town of Ciampino. As a joint civil and military aerodrome handling scheduled airline, cargo, government and general aviation traffic, it lies within controlled airspace served by Roma Approach and Ciampino Tower.
Ciampino has a single physical runway, 15/33, 7248 feet long with a hard surface. It is lit and equipped with an ILS on the 15 approach.
Roma Arrival (Approach) is available on 119.2 MHz, with Roma Director also published on 119.2 MHz. The airport ATIS broadcasts on 122.425 MHz. Ciampino Tower operates on 120.5 MHz, with ground movements handled on 121.75 MHz, and a clearance/CLD frequency of 119.4 MHz is also listed. The field is equipped with an ILS serving runway 15.
Ciampino Airport opened in 1916 and is one of the oldest airports still in operation anywhere. On 10 April 1926 Umberto Nobile departed from the field aboard the airship Norge, the first aircraft to reach the North Pole and the first to cross the polar ice cap from Europe to America. In October 1930 the first prototype helicopter designed by Corradino D'Ascanio was tested here, reaching a then-record altitude of 18 metres, a flight time of 8 minutes 45 seconds and a distance of 1,078 metres. During the Second World War the airport was captured by Allied forces in June 1944 and subsequently operated as a United States Army Air Forces base; C-47 Skytrains of the 64th Troop Carrier Group used it as a transport hub, while the 86th Bombardment Group flew A-36 Apache aircraft from the field in the immediate aftermath of its capture, before it became a major Air Transport Command transshipment point for the rest of the war. Ciampino served as Rome's main airport until 1960, handling more than two million passengers a year, before Fiumicino took over as the primary gateway. For more than three decades afterward it handled almost exclusively charter and executive traffic, until terminal facilities were extended from 2007 to accommodate a growing number of low-cost carrier operations. The airport was also the departure point for two de Havilland Comet jet airliners that broke up in flight in 1954, crashes that helped expose fatal design flaws in the aircraft.
Ciampino today operates as a joint civil and military airport, serving as a base for low-cost carriers including Ryanair, with seasonal Wizz Air services, alongside its role as home to Italian Air Force units. It also hosts a fleet of Bombardier 415 aerial firefighting aircraft, express cargo operators such as DHL, and official flights for the Italian government and visiting dignitaries. A smaller general aviation terminal remains in use, though most private flying traffic for the Rome area has shifted to Rome Urbe Airport.