Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Rome Urbe Airport (LIRU) is a small civilian aerodrome tucked inside the Grande Raccordo Anulare on the northern edge of Rome, sited between Via Salaria and the Tiber. Long the home of the Aeroclub di Roma and various flight schools, it offers VFR pilots a rare chance to operate right in the heart of a major European capital. Its single hard runway, ENAV control tower and lack of instrument approaches make it a field for careful, visual flying only.
Rome Urbe is a small, ENAC-managed civilian airport in the northern part of Rome, wedged between Via Salaria and the Tiber River and only about 2.7 nautical miles inside the city's ring motorway, the Grande Raccordo Anulare. It has long since ceded scheduled traffic to Ciampino and today serves general aviation, flying club activity, air taxi and helicopter operations. For a simulator pilot it is notable chiefly for its unusual position deep inside a capital city, its historic pedigree as one of Italy's earliest airports, and the presence of a functioning ENAV control tower despite its modest size.
The airport sits close to the centre of Rome, within the Grande Raccordo Anulare ring road, between Via Salaria and the Tiber. It lies near Rome's other aerodromes, including Ciampino and Fiumicino, and pilots should expect to operate in proximity to Rome's wider controlled airspace given its location inside the city. It is a controlled aerodrome with its own ENAV tower.
Rome Urbe has a single physical runway aligned 16/34, with a hard, lit surface throughout. Runway 16 is 3200 ft long and runway 34 is 2746 ft long. There is no ILS at the field.
Ground movements are handled on 122.7 MHz and the tower frequency is 123.8 MHz. There is no ILS or other precision approach aid published for the airport, so operations are conducted under visual flight rules with tower control.
As a controlled aerodrome with an ENAV tower, arriving and departing traffic should expect to work directly with Urbe Tower on 123.8 MHz for joining and circuit instructions. No specific circuit heights, noise-abatement procedures or local joining restrictions are given in the available material.
The airport is easily identified from the air by its position between the Tiber River and Via Salaria, close to the northern arc of the Grande Raccordo Anulare ring motorway. The Nuovo Salario railway station, some 400 metres from the airfield, and the surrounding built-up districts of northern Rome provide further useful visual cues when tracking inbound along the Tiber valley.
Rome Urbe was inaugurated in 1928 in the presence of Benito Mussolini, who chose its original name, Littorio Airport, and until the Second World War it was Italy's principal civilian airport, serving as the base for the national airline Ala Littoria. A racetrack, the Autodromo del Littorio, was built inside the airfield's perimeter, and in 1931 it hosted a celebrated plane-versus-car challenge in which Vittorio Suster's Caproni Ca.100 beat Tazio Nuvolari's Alfa Romeo 8C 2300. The airport was heavily damaged by wartime bombing and was reactivated under its present name in the early postwar years, but commercial traffic was soon transferred to Ciampino, after which Urbe became primarily a base for flying clubs, touring flights and air taxi work. It remains the home of the Aeroclub di Roma. In 1995 FAR Airlines trialled a de Havilland Dash 7 STOL airliner at the field in an attempt to establish domestic links, though the venture collapsed shortly afterwards. A new helicopter terminal, funded by an 800,000 euro ENAC investment, opened in 2010. The airfield also has an unusual claim in popular culture: on 18 September 1997 it hosted a U2 concert on their Pop Mart Tour, drawing an audience of around 70,000.
Rome Urbe continues to function as a general aviation and helicopter airport, hosting the Aeroclub di Roma, flight training organisations such as Aviomar Flight Academy, the Rome Urbe weather station and the AvioNews press agency. Since 2021 the airfield's military area has also been home to the Italian Air Force Band. Access from the city is straightforward by road from the Grande Raccordo Anulare, or by rail via the nearby Nuovo Salario station on the FL1 line.