Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport

Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport (Italian: Aeroporto di Olbia-Costa Smeralda) (IATA: OLB, ICAO: LIEO) is an airport in Olbia, Sardinia, Italy. It was the primary operating base for Italian airline Air Italy whose headquarters were located at the airport. It mostly handles seasonal holiday flights from destinations in Europe and is managed by Geasar S.p.A.

Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport Aeroporto di Olbia-Costa Smeralda
IATA: OLB ICAO: LIEO
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Geasar S.p.A.
Serves	Olbia
Location	Olbia, Italy
Elevation AMSL	37 ft / 11 m
Coordinates	40°53′09″N 09°31′01″E
Website	geasar.it
Map
OLB Location of airport in Sardinia Show map of Sardinia OLB OLB (Italy) Show map of Italy
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 05/23 2,745 9,006 Concrete / asphalt
Statistics (2022)
Passengers 3,167,368 Passenger change 21-22 52.2% Aircraft movements 40,125 Movements change 21-22 23.2% Cargo (tons) 734 Cargo change 21-22 391.6%
Source: Italian AIP at EUROCONTROL[1] Statistics from Assaeroporti[2]

History

Terminal building and control tower

Departure gate area before refurbishment in 2020

General aviation apron

A military airfield was opened at Olbia (then Terranova Pausania) in 1921, and a seaplane base was inaugurated close to the Isola Bianca harbour in 1927, although poor loads from the island on the flights to Ostia and Cagliari led to the service's stop in Terranova being discontinued in 1929.^{[citation needed]} The airfield and seaplane base were targeted by Allied bombing in World War II, and the Germans opened another airfield 7.2 kilometres (4.5 mi) west of the town, which was renamed Olbia in 1945.^{[citation needed]}

Commercial flights gradually returned, and in 1963, the Olbia-based airline Alisarda was formed. It successfully expanded its route network, introducing jet flights in 1972, and it was renamed Meridiana in 1991.^{[citation needed]} However, the introduction of jet aircraft necessitated the building of a larger airport nearer the city; the current airport was completed in 1974.^{[citation needed]}

Following three years of work, a new terminal covering 42,000 square metres and capable of handling 4.5 million passengers per year, was unveiled on 6 June 2004. Costing a total of €81 million, the structure was designed by Willem Brouwer Architects and incorporated the original terminal building, which was developed into a 3000-square metre retail area.^{[citation needed]} The new building has 40 check-in desks and ten boarding gates, five of which are equipped with jet bridges. It contains a wide variety of shops and restaurants, a wine bar, a small art gallery, and indoor garden areas featuring local flora.

The airport also is home to the Tourist Management department of the University of Sassari.

From 3 February to 14 March 2020, the airport closed to passenger air traffic for the refurbishment and extension of the taxiways and runway. During this period, all flights arriving and departing were cancelled.^[3] The airport building remained in this period open to events of various kinds. The airport, which was initially scheduled to reopen on March 14, 2020, remained closed until June 2, as a result of the measures taken by the Italian authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.^{[citation needed]} The airport reopened on June 3.^{[citation needed]}

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Olbia:^[4][5]

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airlines	Seasonal: Athens[6]
Aer Lingus	Seasonal: Dublin
AeroItalia	Milan–Linate, Rome–Fiumicino Seasonal: Perugia[7]
Air France	Seasonal: Paris–Charles de Gaulle
airBaltic	Seasonal: Riga
Alpavia	Seasonal: Parma[8][9]
Austrian Airlines	Seasonal: Vienna
British Airways	Seasonal: Edinburgh,[10] London–Heathrow
Brussels Airlines	Seasonal: Brussels
Bulgaria Air	Seasonal charter: Sofia[11]
Condor	Seasonal: Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich
easyJet	Milan–Malpensa Seasonal: Amsterdam, Bari, Basel/Mulhouse,Bergamo, Berlin, Bordeaux, Bristol, Geneva, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, Lyon, Nantes, Naples, Nice, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Paris–Orly, Toulouse, Turin, Venice
Edelweiss Air	Seasonal: Zürich
Eurowings	Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Salzburg, Stuttgart
flydubai	Seasonal: Dubai–International
Iberia	Seasonal: Madrid
ITA Airways	Seasonal: Trieste
Jet2.com	Seasonal: Birmingham, London–Stansted, Manchester
Lufthansa	Seasonal: Frankfurt, Munich
Neos	Seasonal: Bologna, Milan–Malpensa, Verona
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Seasonal: Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda
Ryanair[12]	Bologna, Bergamo, Trieste Seasonal: Beauvais, Charleroi, Copenhagen,[13] Dublin, Kraków, London–Stansted, Vienna
Scandinavian Airlines	Seasonal: Copenhagen
SkyAlps	Seasonal: Bern, Bolzano
Smartwings	Seasonal: Prague
Swiss International Air Lines	Seasonal: Geneva
Transavia	Seasonal: Amsterdam, Paris–Orly
TUI Airways	Seasonal: London–Gatwick,[14] Manchester[15]
Volotea	Bologna, Milan–Linate, Rome–Fiumicino, Turin, Verona Seasonal: Ancona, Barcelona, Bari, Bergamo, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Brest,[16] Catania, Deauville, Florence, Genoa, Lille, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Nantes, Naples, Nice, Palermo, Paris–Orly, Pisa, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Trieste, Valencia, Venice
Vueling	Seasonal: Barcelona
Wizz Air	Seasonal: Milan–Malpensa, Rome–Ciampino, Warsaw–Chopin

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at OLB airport. See Wikidata query.

Ground transportation

By car

The airport is connected to local motorways SS125 and SS729.

By bus

The following bus services operate to/from the airport.

Local buses

Local operator ASPO Olbia operates two routes to/from the airport:

• 2 Airport-Sa Minda Noa
• 10 Airport-Town Centre-Airport

Regional and long distance buses

• 514 Olbia-Olbia Airport-Siniscola-Nuoro
• 601 Santa Teresa di Gallura-Palau-Arzachena-San Pantaleo-Olbia-Olbia Airport
• Cala Gonone-Dorgali-Orosei-La Caletta-Olbia Airport
• Nuoro-Siniscola-Budoni-San Teodoro-Olbia Airport
• 20 Olbia Airport-Olbia-Porto Cervo-Baja Sardinia-Hotel Stelle Marine (Costa Smeralda Shuttle)
• 30 Olbia Airport-Olbia-Calangius-Castelsardo-Porto Torres
• 90 Alghero-Alghero Fertilia Airport-Sassari-Olbia Airport-Olbia
• Olbia Airport-Olbia-Arzachena-Palau-Santa Teresa di Gallura
• Olbia-Telti
• Cagliari-Oristano-Abbasanta-Nuoro-Siniscola-San Teodoro-Olbia Airport-Olbia-Arzachena-Palau-Santa Teresa di Gallura

References

1. "EAD Basic - Error Page". ead.eurocontrol.int.
2. "Traffic data 2019" (PDF). assaeroporti.com.
3. "Sardinia's Olbia airport to close temporarily in February | Aviation Week Network". aviationweek.com. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
4. "Summer Season 2019 scheduled flights" (PDF). Olbia Airport Costa Smeralda.
5. "TimeTable 2019/2020 Winter Season" (PDF). Olbia Airport Costa Smeralda.
6. "Aegean Airlines apre un volo stagionale su Olbia". 13 January 2023.
7. "AeroItalia volerà anche nel 2024 la Perugia – Olbia". 14 February 2024.
8. "InX.aero apre la Parma – Olbia". 7 June 2023.
9. "Principali destinazioni". InX.
10. "British Airways puts two new routes on sale from Edinburgh".
11. "Network Summer Season 2023" (PDF). Olbia Airport.
12. "Ryanair per la prima volta a Olbia, 10 collegamenti estivi - Notizie - Ansa.it". 31 January 2024.
13. "Klar med femte nye Ryanair-rute fra København". 31 January 2024.
14. https://www.tui.co.uk/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
15. https://www.tui.co.uk/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
16. "Volotea nuovi voli da Brest: Roma Fiumicino e Olbia" [Volotea new services from Brest: Rome Fiumicino and Olbia]. www.wetravel.biz/ (in Italian). 22 November 2023.

External links

Media related to Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Accident history for OLB at Aviation Safety Network