Venice Lido

45°25'35"N 012°23'20"E

Runway: 05/23 - 994meters/3000feet - grass

Venice Lido airfield (It: Aeroporto San Nicolò, also known as Nicelli airfield – ICAO LIPV) was an airfield in country
The airfield was built in 1915, to counter the threat of Austro-Hongarian attacks against Venice.
The French government was not indifferent to this threat, and offered to send a few fighter planes to protect the city.
The offer was welcomed by the Italian General Staff and on 13 August, 36 men commanded by pilot Captain Michel de Chalonge departed Lyon for the city on the lagoon.
Their initial airfield, Bazzera near Mestre, proved to be unsuitable for quickly intercepting enemy planes before they reached the lagoon.
A new airfield was therefore constructed by turning the parade ground at Fort San Nicolò in Lido into an airfield.
On the first of December, after three months of work, the French Nieuport 10s and Spad S VIIs were transferred to their new base.
From this new station, the Nieuports could intercept enemy planes more rapidly.
Also, they participated in missions carried out by the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) seaplanes stationed on the neighbouring island of Sant'Andrea da Varriale.
The commander and his pilots, who stayed in the Albergo Paradiso, were often the centre of social interest, encouraged by the excellent cuisine assured by the four cooks that accompanied them..
They attracted many high profile visitors, including the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII), the writer Celine and an exceptional patroness: the fascinating Baroness Nicola Winspeare Guicciardi.
Gabriele D'Annunzio became a regular guest and the Venetian high aristocracy became increasingly welcoming to the French pilots.
As commander of a squadron of Caproni bombers, D'Annunzio tested the use of torpedo bombers for the first time in Italy, until the war necessitated the unit's full employment on the land front.
Before the war ended, Venice would suffer the ordeal of the Battle of Caporetto, in which the San Nicolò and San Andrea squadrons made their decisive contribution on the air front.
After the end of the war, the base was demobilised and the airfield sat completely abandoned for more than six years.


French pilots posing in front of one of their fighters during World War I (aeroportonicelli.it).

The airfield was brought back to life by the Morandi family with the help of Hugo Junkers.
They intended to set up an airfline, connecting Italy to the other side of the Alps.
The success of the inaugural voyage, a flight from Venice (departing from Nicelli) to Vienna with a single-engine Junker I-BATB, proved Renato Morandi right.
Gaining more permanent access to the Lido airfield, however, was not easy.
As it was located in a heavily fortified area, the Italian Ministry of War on several occasions proposed the use of other airfields in Trieste and Mestre.
Transferring San Nicolò airport to the Transadriatica aeronautic company, accomplished with the aid of Italo Balbo, resolved the problem.
The success of Transadriatica, which had chosen San Nicolò as its base of operations, led to the airport's first revival.
Scheduled flights were to Graz, Vienna, Munich and major cities in Italy, including Trento, Florence, Rome, and Brindisi; the latter was a departure point for flights to the Middle East.
After a few years, the airfield was upgraded in a joint civilian/air force project to include workshops.
After Renato Morandi's premature death in 1931, Transadriatica was acquired by the Ministry of Aeronautics and merged into the publicly held corporation Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM).
SAM soon absorbed other Italian companies and was lead by Venetian Umberto Klinger.
Klinger continued Transadriatica's traditions, adopting the swallow as the national airline's symbol and elevating Nicelli airport to the rank of Italy's second most important airport.
The completely rebuilt airport was reinaugurated in 1935.
By that time, its workshops employed hundreds of Venetians.
In 1938 the station building was consideerably enlarged.


Inaugural flight of a Junkers from Nicelli airfield in 1924 (aeroportonicelli.it).


The King of Italy visiting Nicelli airfield in the 1920s (aeroportonicelli.it).

During World War II, the workshops and the airport were militarized along with the rest of the Italian national airline.
The planes and personnel were incorporated into the Servizi Aerei Speciali (SAS), a large unit of the air force created to ensure the connections with the most distant fronts, including Eastern Africa, the Balkans, Russia, and the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean.
In 1947, after a few short-lived attempts, air transport at Nicelli was finally restarted.
Alberto Briganti, former General of the Air Squadron and driving force behind the revival of civil aviation in post-war Italy, inaugurated the first Rome-Venice-Rome flight, completed by Linee Aeree Italiane (LAI).
At the same time, 'Comandante Klinger' was asked by Venetian workers to help them rebuild the former Lido engine overhaul workshops, which had been destroyed during the war.
Klinger purchased what remained of the old buildings and after a series of difficulties, he created the Officine Aeronavali di Venezia (OAN).
The company, which employed 500 people, was a source of employment and training for many veterans and youths during a period in which unemployment was a major problem for Italy and for Lido in particular.
Klinger's pre-war connections enabled him to make agreements with Egyptian authorities for the recovery of airplanes abandoned by the Americans as war surplus in the desert near Cairo.
After initial, cursory repairs were performed, the planes were flown to San Nicolò for more extensive overhaul and then sold to companies on several continents.
Aeronavali became an industrial centre that was internationally famous for the variety and quality of their activities.
They ranged from servicing and refitting large airplanes to manufacturing parts for aircraft and airport facilities.
For a few years the Lido airport was filled with planes, pilots and managers from companies from many different countries.
OAN had become a promotional centre for four airlines: the Egyptian company SAIDE, the Lebanese company LIA, and the Italian companies SAM (in agreement with Alitalia) and Aeralpi.


Nicelli airport in 1942 (Google Earth)


DC-3s under repair at Nicellli, sometime during the 1950s

Towards the end of the 1950s a proposed project to build a new, larger airport inland prompted a discussion on Nicelli Airport's future role.
Nicelli was not capable of receiving large jet aircraft, but it was necessary for the airline companies and for OAN itself to have longer runways and increased surface areas.
The opening of the more modern Treviso airport north of Venice meant that slowly but surely Nicelli lost its role as primary air terminal.
The battle to defend the airports role was conducted both locally and in Parliament.
Proposals were made to expand Nicelli with a 2300 meter runway.
Instead, Venice Marco Polo airport opened in 1960.
Even Klingers OAN eventually had to move to the new airport, as sending his employees from Nicelli ultimately proved unsustainable.
The move (and survival) of OAN in 1970 eventually led to the formation of the Alenia aerospace group.
For Klinger however, the period around the move was a tragedy.
Caught between Rome politicians (who wanted to nationalise his company) and trade unions (alledgedly conspiring with the politicians), his company was running out of steam.
Payments from his largest customer, the Italian Air Force, started to not come through.
On the other side the unions were making demands for the payment of salaries, in spite of Klingers pleas for more time.
During increasingly intense meetings with the workers and the unions, Klinger pleaded them to be patient as he struggled to reopen the financial flow.
But the unions rejected any compromises on pay or contracts, however temporary they might be, and compelled the workers to resist.
They ultimately even went on strike for 72 hours.
Celebrity or not, the man who had looked after his employees with no less solicitude than he had cared for his pilots was running out of fuel.
During these harrowing days, Klinger was heard to say more than once that what was needed to resolve this impasse was "something really big".
Early in the morning of 21 January 1971, he went by himself into the old hangar at Nicelli, by that time virtually abandoned.
A few hours later, when the guard made his rounds, he discovered the body of 'Comandante Klinger', he had hung himself.


DC3s parked in front of the Nicelli hangar in 1970, months before OAN closed its last shops at the airfield.


'Comandante Klinger' as he is remembered by most of the people who knew him: in a suit and with a broad smile.

The G. Ancilotto Flying Club of Venice continued promotional and training activities, but in spite of their efforts the decline set in.
Nicelli Airport's long decline was briefly interrupted when pilot and aviation enthusiast Luciano Sorlini purchased and restored the hangars and buildings formerly owned by Officine Aeronavali.
However, misunderstandings and other difficulties soon ended this encouraging effort.
With the turn of the century approaching, the future for Nicelli looked bleak.
It was not until the early 2000s that new signs of revival appeared.
The management company Nicelli SpA initiateed projects like the restoration of the terminal and the construction of a new, modern air traffic control tower, as well as aprons and new hangars.


The former Officine Aeronavali hangars and buildings before their restauration by Sorlini


Overview of Nicelli airport in 2007 (Google Earth)


On Christmas Day 2012, Giuseppe Barcaccia surprised me by emailing me this picture of the beautifully restored Nicelli terminal and the former Esso office in 2010.


In his Christmas Day photo series, Giuseppe Barcaccia included this 2010 interior photo of the Nicelli terminal building.


Also in the Christmas Day photos of Giuseppe Barcaccia was this photo of the restored hangars and buildings formerly owned by
Officine Aeronavali at Nicelli airport. They are located across the runway from the terminal building and today owned by Sorlini.


This building, photographed in 2010 and located on the north side of the airfield, might easily be mistaken for an Air Traffic Control Tower. Although it is built for traffic control, it is actually a sea traffic control tower, coordinating the busy shipping in the waters around Venice (photo Erwin Leetink)


Nicelli airfield, photographed from Punta Sabbioni in 2012 (photo: Erwin Leetink).