Rome Ciampino Airport

Rome Ciampino Airport stands 12 kilometres south-east of Rome’s centre, just beyond the city’s ring road. It is a combined civilian and military airfield, one of the oldest still in use, opened in 1916. The airport is named after Giovan Battista Pastine, an airship pilot who served in the First World War. Military units such as the 31º Stormo and 2nd Reparto Genio of the Italian Air Force are based here. A fleet of firefighting aircraft also operates from the site. The airport has played important roles in aviation history. Umberto Nobile took off from Ciampino in 1926 on the airship Norge, the first aircraft to reach the North Pole. In 1930 the first helicopter prototype by Corradino D’Ascanio was tested here, reaching 18 metres and flying 1,078 metres in under nine minutes. During the Second World War the airport served as a major Allied transport hub, handling C-47 Skytrain aircraft and later transiting cargo and personnel for the rest of the conflict. The single-storey terminal has 31 check-in desks and 16 departure gates served by buses, with no jet bridges. There are four baggage belts in arrivals and a few shops and counters. The airport also hosts express logistics flights, government aircraft and dignitaries visiting Rome. Outside the terminal the runways and aprons stretch across flat ground, framed by distant Roman hills.