Which Italian airport for which trip

Italy has 24 airports open to commercial civil traffic with an IATA code, they handled 230,080,945¹ passengers in 2025, and the useful question is not which is biggest but which of the three letters is printed on your ticket.

Rome has two fields, and they are not interchangeable

Fiumicino took 51,306,744³ passengers in 2025, up 4.3% on 2024, and it is where almost every intercontinental flight to Rome lands. Its code is FCO, the operator is Aeroporti di Roma, and the train to Termini leaves from inside the terminal.

Ciampino, code CIA, handled 3,987,517⁴ passengers the same year, +3.3%. It sits southeast of the city, has no rail link of its own and exists mostly for low cost carriers. Details on both are on the Fiumicino page.

Milan sells three, and one of them is another city

Malpensa is the second Italian airport with 31,385,585⁵ passengers in 2025 and the fastest growing of the big ones at +8.6%. Code MXP, run by SEA, it carries the long haul.

Linate, code LIN, took 11,131,764⁶ and sits inside the city, which makes it the short hop airport for business routes. Bergamo Orio al Serio, code BGY, moved 16,937,976⁷ passengers and is third in Italy, but it is in Bergamo, a different city with its own bus link, and it was the only large Italian airport to lose traffic in 2025, down 2.4%. The Milan airports page compares the three.

Venice, Pisa, Verona: the second airport trick

Venice Marco Polo, code VCE, took 11,850,336⁸ passengers in 2025. Treviso Antonio Canova, code TSF, took 3,200,130⁹ and is 19th nationally, yet it is routinely advertised as Venice. Read the code: the Marco Polo page explains why the airport bus there costs more than you expect.

Pisa Galileo Galilei, code PSA, is Tuscany's main airport with 5,977,227¹⁰ passengers, ahead of Florence Peretola, code FLR, at 3,847,658¹¹, and both are run by the same company. Verona Villafranca, code VRN, took 4,027,863¹⁹ and is the usual door to Lake Garda.

The south and the islands, by 2025 traffic

Naples Capodichino, code NAP, is fourth in Italy with 13,271,522¹² passengers, +4.9%. Catania Fontanarossa, code CTA, is fifth with 12,369,485¹³, and it is the largest airport in Sicily by a wide margin over Palermo, code PMO, at 9,220,905¹⁴.

Bari Karol Wojtyla, code BRI, took 7,977,881¹⁵, up 9.7%, and Lamezia Terme, code SUF, 3,049,594¹⁶, up 12.4%¹⁶, the strongest growth among the twenty largest. In Sardinia, Cagliari Elmas, code CAG, took 5,254,433¹⁸ and Olbia Costa Smeralda, code OLB, 4,161,572¹⁷ in a season that concentrates on the summer.

What the totals do not tell you

Two official bodies publish two national totals for 2025: 230,080,945¹ from Assaeroporti and 229,740,554¹ from ENAC, 0.15%¹ apart, because they count different things. The airport system page sets out the perimeters.

Ground transfer costs and times are published for Rome, Milan and Venice on their own pages here. For the other 21 airports we have no verified fare, so this page gives none.

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