Rome Airport
Fiumicino Airport is an Italian international airport located in the territory of the municipality of Fiumicino, about 30 km west of the city centre of Rome. With 43.5 million passengers in the year 2019, it is Italy’s leading airport in terms of passenger numbers and the second largest cargo traffic of over 199 000 tonnes.
It is a hub for Alitalia and a secondary hub for low-cost airline Vueling. It is also the operational base for Alitalia CityLiner, Blue Panorama Airlines, Mistral Air, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Ryanair. A total of 105 airlines operate Rome Airport. Together with Ciampino Airport, it forms Rome’s airport system with over 50 million passengers a year (2019), the largest in Italy and among the largest in Europe. Both airports are managed by the company Aeroporti di Roma (AdR).
It currently has two terminals (T1 and T3) and three runways: 16L/34R and 16R/34L, separated from each other by 4000 m and mainly used for landings from the north, and 07/25 mainly used for take-offs in a westerly direction, due to the prevailing winds. For the second consecutive year, “Leonardo da Vinci” through ACI (Airport Council International), has been awarded by passengers the “Airport Service Quality Award” as the best airport in Europe for 2018 and 2019.
The 2015 fire
On 7 May 2015, shortly after midnight, the airport was hit by a violent fire in Terminal 3. There were no injuries or fatalities, but as it is a major national and international transport hub, all air traffic suffered cancellations and delays. The disruption continued for about two months. Investigations revealed that the cause was electrical, due to an air conditioner, which had repeatedly triggered an overheating alarm.
By Rome airport taxi you need about 45 minutes to get in center of Rome downtown.