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Foggia Gino Lisa Airport
Even before World War II, the "Gino Lisa" airport was a flight school for American pilots, then becoming an important air base, with aircrafts from the Italian Air Forces, the German Luftwaffe, and then the USAF, whose soldiers will build a special runway for the Flying Fortresses, made of metallic nets. Passenger flights start only in 1971, when the national carrier Ati chooses Foggia as a stopover between Taranto and Trieste, besides regular flights to and from Rome. From 1975 to 1988 the airport will only serve for general and private aviation purposes, aside from a regular helicopter service to the Tremiti islands, run by Alidaunia. At the end of the Nineteen-Eighties the carrier Aliblù will connect Foggia to Roma again, thanks to its Jetstream 31 fleet, for over a year and a half, later letting Alidaunia take over the business. Alidaunia will keep for almost a year a temporary connection with Milano Malpensa, and since 1993 also with Parma, thanks to the 9-seat Mitsubishi Diamond jets. In January 1994, International Flying Service (today's Eureca) starts its flight Torino- Foggia- Roma Ciampino, with a 19-seat Metroliner II, but this too was soon over. In the last years, the City Administration of Foggia has been determined in taking over the airport, the Aeroporto di Foggia S.p.A. was thus created, in which the City, the Province of Bari and other local economic players participate, besides the local airline Federico II Airways, which started its activities in October1998 with a fleet of 30-seat Dornier 328.
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