Romes Leonardo da Vinci Airport, more commonly referred to as Fiumicino, after the Tiber fishing town and port nearby, celebrates its fiftieth birthday this month. The airport was opened on the 20 August 1960, five days before the inauguration of the Rome Olympics.

Although it was a showpiece for the Olympic visitors, the airport did not really get going, however, until the following January, when all the airline companies were transferred from Ciampino Airport, which thereafter became a base for charter flights.

The airport is in constant expansion. At the moment, it has five terminals, four runways, 359 check-in desks and 86 gates. In 2009, almost 33,811,637 passengers passed through Leonardo da Vinci, just over 12 ˝ million on domestic flights and 21,182,314 on international flights.