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57-545: Comiso Airport "Pio La Torre" ( IATA : CIY , ICAO : LICB ), also known as Vincenzo Magliocco Airport , is an airport located in the town of Comiso in the Province of Ragusa , Sicily , Italy . The airport serves Comiso (5 km [3.1 mi]), Ragusa (15 km [9.3 mi]), 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

114-402: A few very small incidents took place over the following years. From 1983 to 1991, Comiso Air Base was the largest NATO base in southern Europe and housed 112 BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missiles . Comiso Air Station was a very tightly controlled facility with a large security presence assigned due to the mission of the base, and the presence of nuclear-armed missiles which were stored at

171-584: A fire at Catania airport closed the main terminal. A considerable proportion of the air traffic destined for Catania was diverted to Comiso, including flights from non-Schengen countries. Flights were resumed to Catania on 8 August. The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Comiso Airport: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency [REDACTED] Media related to Comiso Airport at Wikimedia Commons IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

228-414: A manner that allowed a one-way route with no cross-overs, to test and present different aspects of the car: a straight part for its power and brakes, another flowing part for its chassis and suspension, a skidpad for traction-control-free drifting, and a tight and twisty part for the rear-wheel steering. This necessitated clearing of brush growing through the road surfaces in various places. On 17 July 2023,

285-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

342-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

399-516: Is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe . As a provisional unit, it may be activated or inactivated at any time. The unit's last known assignment was in 2003 at Cairo West Air Base , Egypt, during Operation Iraqi Freedom . The first predecessor of the wing is the 487th Bombardment Group , a United States Army Air Forces unit. It

456-600: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

513-518: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

570-650: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

627-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

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684-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

741-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

798-548: The 487th Tactical Missile Wing . The wing operated BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missiles until it was inactivated in 1991 with the implementation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty . The 487th Bombardment Group was activated at Bruning Army Air Field , Nebraska on 20 September 1943, with the 836th , 837th and 838th Bombardment Squadrons assigned as its original squadrons. The 8th Antisubmarine Squadron , which had helped form

855-517: The 4th Bombardment Wing commanded the raid and flew the 487th's lead aircraft. The group was attacked by Luftwaffe interceptors before escorting fighters could join the bomber formation. Three group planes were shot down, and an additional four were abandoned after making emergency landings in Belgium. Among the losses was General Castle's lead plane. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for taking control of

912-551: The Allied crossings of the Rhine and final thrust across Germany. It flew its last combat mission on 21 April 1945. By the end of the war, the group had flown 185 missions with the loss of 33 aircraft in combat, claiming 22 enemy aircraft destroyed. The 487th remained in England after V-E Day . The air echelon began to fly their B-17s back to the United States in the last week of July, while

969-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

1026-633: The Netherlands . Because of its involvement with tactical operations, the group engaged in only limited strategic operations through August 1944. On 19 July 1944, the 487th was taken off combat operations, along with other units of the 92d Combat Bombardment Wing , to convert from the Liberator to the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , in a move that would transform the 3d Bombardment Division to an all Flying Fortress organization. After completing

1083-601: The Soviet Union . On 17 March 1982, Commander George W. Holland, of the U.S. Navy Civil Engineering Corps, arrived at Comiso as the resident officer in charge of construction (ROICC). The Air Force activated the 7024th Special Activities Squadron at nearby NAS Sigonella in May 1982 as a primary point of contact and liaison with Lelio Lagorio the Italian Minister of Defence regarding initial site preparations at Comiso. At Comiso,

1140-665: The group 's cadre , joined the group on 14 October after being redesignated as the 839th Bombardment Squadron. The group trained with Consolidated B-24 Liberators until March 1944, when it departed for the European Theater of Operations . The ground echelon left Alamogordo Army Air Field , New Mexico on 10 March 1944 for the port of embarkation at Camp Kilmer , New Jersey, sailing on the SS ; Duchess of Bedford and arrived in Great Britain on 3 April. The air echelon departed via

1197-449: 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

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1254-521: The II Corps, under the command of (then) Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, captured the base on 11 July 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 allied units assigned to

1311-698: 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

1368-506: The Normandy landings, the group struck coastal defenses, road junctions, bridges and rolling stock . It supported British troops near Caen by attacking German troops and artillery redoubts and made similar attacks to support troops assaulting Brest . It provided support for Operation Market Garden , the attempt to seize bridgeheads across the Rhine River near Arnhem and Nijmegen in

1425-473: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . 487th Tactical Missile Wing The 487th Air Expeditionary Wing

1482-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

1539-515: The abandoned homes of the US military who left in 1991. Refurbishment work to reactivate the airport started in 2004 and was completed during the winter of 2008. The new runway is 2,538 m (8,327 ft) long and 60 m (200 ft) wide, (45 m (148 ft) with two hard shoulders, each of 7.5 m (24 ft 7 in)) and has two fast exits (B and C); they connect to a taxiway 38 m (125 ft) wide. An ILS ( Instrument Landing System )

1596-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

1653-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

1710-474: The base were: USAAF: RAF: The airfield remained under Allied control when they left in early 1945. The airfield and facilities at Magliocco fell into disuse during the postwar years. In 1954 Alitalia , the Italian national airline, began commercial operations there. The facilities were extended, with a runway that was to be 1,740 m (5,710 ft) long, the airport was opened to civil aviation. The airport

1767-659: The base. The U.S. Air Force 487th Tactical Missile Wing and Italian Air Force host organisation jointly accomplished the NATO GLCM mission at Comiso until the base closed on 30 June 1991, a result of the signing of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Force Treaty in 1987. In the late 1990s, Comiso was used for the Rainbow Mission (Italian: Missione Arcobaleno), to house 5,000 Kosovars during the war in former Yugoslavia . The refugees were temporarily settled in

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1824-553: The buildings on the base were almost all bombed out shells and the runway had trees growing out of it. A few of the old buildings were refurbished and used by the USAF or the Italian Air Force , but most were demolished carefully, because of the large amount of Second World War unexploded ordnance , a new base was constructed from the ground up, which was completed on 13 August 1982. After demolition, limited facilities were constructed for

1881-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

1938-874: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

1995-550: The establishment of an interim base support facility or "porta-cabin city" for the 1983 summer arrival of the United States Air Force 487th Combat Support Group. The first permanently assigned U.S. military personnel arrived in April 1983 in the early stages of the construction of the base. There was a small Italian Air Force contingent there at that time, along with a U.S. Navy construction office. The 487th Combat Support Group

2052-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

2109-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

2166-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

2223-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

2280-645: The last being on 21 April 1945. Following V-E Day , the unit returned to Drew Field , Florida, where it was inactivated on 7 November 1945. The wing's second predecessor is the 587th Tactical Missile Wing , which operated TM-61 Matador tactical cruise missiles in German during the Cold War from 1958 until 1962, when it was inactivated and its operational squadron was assigned directly to its parent 38th Tactical Missile Wing . The two groups were consolidated in January 1982 as

2337-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

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2394-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

2451-570: The plane to permit other crew members to bail out and refusing to jettison the plane's bombload to avoid casualties to civilians or friendly troops below. From 1 January 1945 through the end of the war, the group's bombing accuracy was the highest in the 3d Air Division. The group was diverted from the strategic bombing campaign to support ground troops during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. It also flew interdiction missions during

2508-657: The rest of the unit returned to the United States on the RMS ; Queen Elizabeth in August. It reassembled at Drew Field , Florida in September and was inactivated there on 7 November 1945. From September 1956, the 587th Tactical Missile Group operated Air Force missiles. It was assigned to the 38th Tactical Missile Wing and stationed at Sembach Air Base , West Germany. It controlled Mace and Matador tactical cruise missiles at three dispersed locations 2.6 to 12.5 miles from Sembach. It

2565-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

2622-477: The southern ferry route on 23 March. The group arrived at RAF Lavenham , its base in England, on 4 April 1944, with the air echelon arriving between 13 and 17 April. The 487th entered combat on 7 May 1944, bombing airfields in Normandy in preparation for Operation Overlord , the invasion o Normandy. Four days later, its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Beirne Lay, Jr. , was shot down, but evaded capture. During

2679-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

2736-652: The transition to the B-17 on 1 August 1944, the unit began to focus on strategic targets until March 1945. It attacked oil refineries in Merseburg , Mannheim and Dulmen ; factories in Nuremberg , Hanover and Berlin ; and marshalling yards in Köln , Münster , Hamm and Neumunster . On 24 December 1944, the group was the lead group on Eighth Air Force 's largest mission of the war. Brigadier General Frederick Castle , commander of

2793-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

2850-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

2907-483: The wing and base in stages. During the summer of 1983, three large anti-nuclear demonstrations, largely funded by the Communist Party, were conducted around the base perimeter, with as many as 5,000 protesters at the events in late July, August and September. After these three demonstrations, which also involved a large number of Italian police, both local and national, the protesters appeared to lose interest and only

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2964-449: Was activated in September 1943. After training in the United States, it deployed to the European Theater of Operations , where it engaged in combat with Consolidated B-24 Liberators . In the summer of 1944, it was withdrawn from combat to convert to the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , than continued in combat until the spring of 1945. It led the largest Eighth Air Force mission of the war on 24 December 1944. It flew 185 combat missions,

3021-520: Was also a base for the 41st Storm of Catania (Italian Air Force), until 1973. However, the airport was little used. During the Cold War , on 7 August 1981, it was officially selected as the second European main operating base for BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM), deployed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in response to the development and deployment of new intercontinental and intermediate range missiles by

3078-406: Was assigned to Comiso Air Station in May 1983; their efforts led to the 30 June 1983 activation of the 487th Tactical Missile Wing . Construction of permanent facilities began that summer, with the first major support facilities, which included the first two dormitories which were completed in late 1983. These facilities belonged to the first of three increments of construction, which would activate

3135-469: 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

3192-494: Was inactivated on 25 September 1962. On 11 January 1982, the 487th Bombardment Group, and 587th Tactical Missile Group were consolidated (effectively merged on paper) and the merged unit became the 487th Tactical Missile Wing. This was a purely administrative, on-paper change. Activated in 1983, the 487th Tactical Missile Wing was stationed at Comiso Air Station in Sicily. Equipped with BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile , which

3249-451: Was installed and a new control tower 19 m (62 ft) high was built. The first civil flight was made on a 30 April 2007, after the necessary tests and the inauguration of the new runway, but the airport was open to the traffic only on 30 May 2013. In September 2021, Bentley Motors Ltd debuted its 2022 Bentley Continental GT Speed for selected motoring journalists, using the closed airbase's road system. Various roads were used in

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