Brindisi Airport

Brindisi Airport (IATA: BDS, ICAO: LIBR) (Italian: Aeroporto di Brindisi), also known as Brindisi Papola Casale Airport and Salento Airport, is an airport in Brindisi, in southern Italy, located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the city centre.

Brindisi Airport Aeroporto di Brindisi
IATA: BDS ICAO: LIBR
Summary
Airport type	Public
Serves	Brindisi, Italy
Focus city for	Ryanair
Elevation AMSL	47 ft / 14 m
Coordinates	40°39′27″N 17°56′49″E
Website	aeroportidipuglia.it
Map
BDS Location of the airport in Italy Show map of Apulia BDS BDS (Italy) Show map of Italy
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 05/23 5,892 1,796 Asphalt 13/31 10,000 3,048 Asphalt
Statistics (2023)
Passengers 3,176,143 Passenger change 22-23 +3.6% Aircraft movements 24,337 Movements change 22-23 -4.8% Cargo (tons) 448 Cargo change 22-23 +531,0%
Statistics from Assaeroporti [1]

History

Foundation and early years

This airport was originally established as a military airbase in the 1920s. The first commercial flights serving Rome began in the 1930s with the establishment of Ala Littoria Airlines in 1934. After World War II, Alitalia took over the route and added a flight to Catania.^{[citation needed]}

The airport is officially named after Antonio Papola, in memory of the Italian aviator who died on 13 February 1948 in an air accident who had a special bond with the city. It is also officially known as "Casale" with reference to the contiguous neighborhood in Brindisi with the same name and also as "Salento Airport" with reference to the geographic region where it is located.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2008, it has officially changed its legal status into civilian airport, still maintaining operational the military facilities attached to it. These are identified with its original name "Military Airport Orazio Pierozzi", named in memory of an Italian airman of the First World War.^{[citation needed]}

Military usage

The strategic position of the airport in the Mediterranean region, along with its multi-modal connections with the highway and the port a few kilometers away, have made it a base of crucial importance for both national defense and NATO. For the same strategic reasons, in 1994 the airport was chosen as the main global logistics base by the United Nations to support its peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations around the world, which was previously hosted in Pisa Military Airport "San Giusto".^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, the United Nations humanitarian supply depot was also moved from Pisa to Brindisi. It has since then been managed by the World Food Programme and officially known as the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD). On behalf of governments, other UN agencies and NGOs, from UNHRD Brindisi humanitarian aid is directed to the most remote and devastated regions around the world.^{[citation needed]}

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Brindisi Airport:

Airlines	Destinations
Aer Lingus	Seasonal: Dublin[2]
Air Dolomiti	Seasonal: Munich[3]
British Airways	Seasonal: London–Heathrow[4]
Brussels Airlines	Seasonal: Brussels[5]
DAT	Seasonal: Catania[citation needed]
easyJet	Basel/Mulhouse,[6] Geneva,[6] Milan–Malpensa[7] Seasonal: London–Gatwick,[8] Lyon (begins 5 June 2025),[9] Paris–Orly[6]
Eurowings	Stuttgart Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn,[10] Düsseldorf[11]
ITA Airways	Milan–Linate,[12] Rome–Fiumicino[12]
Luxair	Seasonal: Luxembourg[13]
Neos	Seasonal: Milan–Malpensa,[6] Verona[6]
Ryanair[14]	Beauvais,[6] Bergamo,[6] Bologna,[6] Charleroi,[15] Eindhoven,[6] Gdańsk,[16] London–Stansted,[6] Manchester,[17] Milan–Malpensa,[6] Perugia,[6] Pisa,[18] Rome–Fiumicino,[6] Trieste,[19] Turin,[6] Verona[6] Seasonal: Dublin,[20] Genoa,[21] Madrid,[6] Memmingen,[6] Palermo,[6] Stockholm–Arlanda,[6] Venice,[22] Wrocław[23]
SkyAlps	Seasonal: Bolzano[24]
Smartwings	Seasonal: Prague[25]
Swiss International Air Lines	Geneva,[26] Zürich[27]
Transavia	Seasonal: Paris–Orly,[28] Rotterdam/The Hague[29]
TUI fly Belgium	Seasonal: Brussels[30]
Volotea	Seasonal: Nantes[citation needed]

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at BDS airport. See Wikidata query.

See also

• Port of Brindisi
• List of airports in Italy
• Bari Airport