The Nicelli Turns 100: From Italy's First Passenger Flight to Clooney by Helicopter

One hundred years ago, on August 18, 1926, the first scheduled passenger flight in Italian aviation history took off from the San Nicolò airport on the Lido, bound for Vienna. The Corriere del Veneto recounts the history of the Lido airport, today known as Nicelli airport.

On board that Junkers F 13 monoplane were, among others, journalist and pilot Otello Cavara and engineer Renato Morandi, founder of the Transadriatica company which made the Lido its main hub, connecting Venice to cities such as Turin, Trieste, Rome and even Alexandria in Egypt.

An Already Legendary Airport

The Lido airfield had even older roots: in 1912 Italy's first paying passenger had taken off from here, and it was here that Gabriele D'Annunzio had founded his First Naval Torpedo Squadron. It was in 1935, however, that the current terminal was inaugurated, dedicated to aviator Giovanni Nicelli and designed by Mario Emmer in rationalist style, with references to the forms of an ocean liner and decorations by futurist painter Guglielmo Sansoni, known as Tato.

From Abandonment to Restoration

The airport remained Venice's main airfield until the 1960s, when modern aircraft necessitated the move to Tessera. After a period of abandonment, the Nicelli was restored in 2007 by architect Claudio Rebeschini, returning to new life with its swallows on the sign and grass runway.

Today the BBC has ranked it third among the world's most beautiful airports. Here Junkers still sells aircraft for sport and tourist flying, while George Clooney lands by helicopter from Lake Como. For the centennial, a photographic exhibition dedicated to the first historic flight to Vienna has been set up.