Venice Marco Polo Airport guide

Venice Marco Polo Airport opened on 31 July 1961 on reclaimed marshland at Tessera, replacing the old Lido seaplane base as Venice's main air gateway. The airport is named after the Venetian explorer Marco Polo and is the fifth-busiest in Italy, handling 11.6 million passengers in 2024, a record for the airport and a 2.3% rise on 2023.

The single terminal building spans three floors: arrivals on the ground floor, departures and gates above, with 70 check-in desks split into islands by airline. Departure processing is split into separate Schengen and non-Schengen areas. easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air, and Volotea operate bases here, and the airport carries a growing share of intercontinental routes to North America, the Middle East, and Asia.

Because central Venice has no roads, the airport connects to the city by water as well as by land. Alilaguna waterbuses and private water taxis depart from a dock roughly a 10-minute covered walk from the terminal, crossing the lagoon directly to hotel docks or St Mark's Square. A rail link to Venice Mestre is under construction, targeted for completion in late 2026.