Comiso Airport

Comiso Airport Aeroporto di Comiso
IATA: CIY ICAO: LICB
Summary
Airport type	Public
Serves	Comiso, Ragusa, Vittoria, Gela
Location	Comiso, Sicily, Italy
Opened	30 May 2013
Elevation AMSL	620 ft / 190 m
Coordinates	36°59′30″N 14°36′25″E / 36.991667°N 14.606944°E / 36.991667; 14.606944Coordinates: 36°59′30″N 14°36′25″E / 36.991667°N 14.606944°E / 36.991667; 14.606944
Website	aeroportodicomiso.com
Map
Comiso Airport
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 05/23 2,538 8,326 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 372,963 Passenger change 2014-15 +13.6% Aircraft movements 3,458 Movements change 2014-15 +21.5%
Statistics from Assaeroporti

Passengers	372,963
Passenger change 2014-15	+13.6%
Aircraft movements	3,458
Movements change 2014-15	+21.5%

Comiso Airport Pio La Torre" (IATA: CIY, ICAO: LICB), also known as Vincenzo Magliocco Airport, is located in the Sicilian town of Comiso in the Ragusa province. The airport serves Comiso (5 km/3 miles from it), Ragusa (15 km/9.3 miles from it), Vittoria and Gela. It changed from military to civil use during 2005-2008. The airport was opened to commercial and general aviation 30 May 2013.

The installation began as an aerodrome that was constructed in southeastern Sicily, at the foot of the Hyblaean Mountains ("Monti iblei") and near the city of Comiso. The airport was designed in 1934 under the fascist regime but building works did not start until 1935 and were finished in 1939. Magliocco Aerodromo was dedicated in 1936 and named in honor of Major General Vincenzo Magliocco, the first Sicilian to become a general officer in the Italian Air Force. Magliocco had been killed in the Ethiopian war in 1936.

It became one of several key aerodromes in southern Sicily during the Second World War. German forces were stationed there in 1941, as part of Italy's Axis Alliance, and the German Luftwaffe in 1943 conducted air operations against Allied positions in Maghreb and Malta after its withdrawal from Tunisia.

Aerial bombardments by the Allies rendered the airfield unserviceable on 26 May and 17 June 1943 in preparation for Operation Husky, the allied landings on Sicily. Just after the landing on the nearby Sicilian beaches two Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers took off from Comiso to bomb the landing beaches, only to be met by United States Army troops at the airfield when they landed for rearming and fuel. Ground assault forces of the II Corps, under the command of (then) Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, captured the base on July 11, 1943. Six days later, after quick repairs to the airfield, Allied air forces began operations at Magliocco, designated Comiso Airfield by the Allies, coming under the USAAF Twelfth Air Force. It was primarily used to support airborne and assault glider operations. Known American units assigned to the base were: