Florence Airport, Peretola

Florence Airport, Peretola Aeroporto di Firenze-Peretola
IATA: FLR ICAO: LIRQ FLR Location of airport in Italy
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Toscana Aeroporti S.p.A.
Serves	Florence, Italy
Focus city for	Vueling
Elevation AMSL	from 124.67 to 137.79 ft / from 38 to 42 m
Coordinates	43°48′36″N 11°12′14″E / 43.81000°N 11.20389°E / 43.81000; 11.20389
Website	aeroporto.firenze.it
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 05/23 5,741 1,750 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 2,419,818 Passenger change 14-15 7.5% Aircraft movements 34,269 Movements change 14-15 0.3%
Statistics from Assaeroporti

Passengers	2,419,818
Passenger change 14-15	7.5%
Aircraft movements	34,269
Movements change 14-15	0.3%

Florence Airport, Peretola (IATA: FLR, ICAO: LIRQ), Italian: Aeroporto di Firenze-Peretola and formally Amerigo Vespucci Airport, is the international airport of Florence, the capital of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the second-busiest Tuscan airport in terms of passengers after Pisa International Airport. It serves as a focus city for Vueling.

The first air field in Florence was created in the Campo di Marte area in 1910, when military authorities allowed a field to be used for "experiments in air navigation". Campo di Marte thus became Florence's first airport, and remained so throughout the 1920s. However, the field was soon surrounded by houses and was inadequate for the new aircraft that were then replacing the first canvas-covered craft. In 1928, a location on the plain between Florence and Sesto Fiorentino was chosen. Peretola Airport opened there in the early 1930s.

At first, Peretola was a large field where airplanes took off and landed with no formal direction, but eventually, the Ministry of Aeronautics decided to enlarge and upgrade it. The airport was extended toward Castello, and in 1938–39, an asphalt runway 60 metres wide and 1,000 metres long, facing northeast, was built.

In the 1940s, Peretola welcomed its first passenger flights, operated by Aerea Teseo with Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In 1948, Aerea Teseo went out of business. In the late '50s and early '60s, Alitalia, also using the DC-3, offered two routes: Rome–Florence–Venice and Rome–Florence–Milan. ATI then offered several domestic flights with the Fokker F27.