Constance/Ragusa (gro) It has been six years since it was officially inaugurated. And despite multiple announcements of an “imminent start of operations,” skeptics doubted until the very end that Comiso Airport in the extreme south of the Mediterranean island would actually begin flight operations. But on Monday of this week, June 3, 2013, the time had really come: the south of Sicily is taking off! On June 21 and 23, the first passenger planes will take off for test flights to and from Malta. The airport operators are currently negotiating with several airlines, including Ryanair and Air Tunis.
For 150 euros to Malta and back
Although these are only test flights on June 21 and 23, normal tickets are also available for short trips. 150 euros is the round trip to Malta on the second last weekend of June (Friday, May 21 from in Comiso at 10.30 am, to Malta 11.05 am; Sunday Malta from 5.30 pm, to Comiso 6 pm). For more information and for reservations: Hereatours in Ragusa, via Risorgimento 4, – telephone 0030 0932 653480 and 653300. The pure flight time is 20 minutes.
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Ryanair via Malpensa (Milan) and Ciampino (Rome)
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Decisive for the success of the new airport in southern Sicily is likely to be the extent to which the solvent tourist flow from northern Europe can be connected to Comiso. According to reports from negotiating circles, Ryanair wants to connect Comiso with Milan-Malpensa and Rome-Ciampino. This would offer air travelers from Ireland/England and Sweden/Finland favorable transfer connections in direction of the sunny island of Sicily – and for the first time also further to North Africa.
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Eastern Europe and Tunisia are also to be connected
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With the help of Comiso, Ryanair also wants to bring Eastern Europe closer to Southern Europe, he said. The bosses of the low-cost airline, so one hears, are long also in negotiations with Kompagnons in Czech Republic and Hungary. It is planned to fly to the southern Sicilian airport of Comiso also from Prague and Budapest. The airport company is also negotiating with a Tunisian airline. After all, the North African country of Tunisia is just a hop, skip and a jump away on the other side of the Canale di Sicilia.