[PHOTOGALLERY] Aviation in Sicily: planespotting in Palermo

Sicily is a destination that combines a virtually perfect destination blend, combining a high-seeked tourism spot and a huge population, which drives outbound demand. It’s paradise for network planners. This month, according to Cirium’s Diio Mi application, flights from/to Sicily represent 14.28% of the ASKs in Italy, while in 2019 Sicily represented just over 8% of Italy’s population.

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That’s why, arriving in Palermo, the island’s second gateway after Catania, you can expect to see quite the variety of traffic.

Naturally, low-costs rule in Palermo. Eleven of them this month, to be more precise, according to Cirium; seven legacy airlines compliment these services. The three largest LCCs there, Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air, own 72.36% of all flights to/from the airport this month, as per Cirium.

And the background in Palermo (if you are on the right area of the runway, looking from the terminal side) is quite dramatic. Observing the airport lies Monte Pecoraro, with a height over 4.6 thousand feet.

The background for pictures from spots from this side, therefore, is quite rich. Even for those Ryanair departures — you won’t want to miss it! For this Ryanair take-off, we were lucky as we catched it while we were deboarding.

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After that, I went to a BNB nearby, Villa Rosa dei Venti. It’s a perfect place, really. The rooms were sensational and the owners were super cool, but the best was yet to come… the view from the yard! Pure luck again but next time I stay in Palermo I’ll definitely stay there.

As the night fell, I even tried some night shots. Of course the image quality was not the same (my camera becomes a sand castle maker when ISO passes 800), but I was still quite pleased with the results.

Alitalia (well, ITA now) is still a major player in Sicily, connecting Palermo to Milan/Linate and Rome/Fiumicino with several daily frequencies. In the route to Rome, they even compete directly with Ryanair.

The last good picture I managed to take that afternoon was the one below, of an arriving Ryanair 737-800.

Returning to the mainland the following afternoon, we’ve been able to catch a reasonably good photo of this rare aircraft — a Danish Air Transport ATR 72-200, registered OY-LHB with «Volidisicilia» stickers. This is an operation undertaken by DAT that connects two minor islands of the Sicilian region, Lampedusa and Pantelleria, to the main island, through the airports of Catania, Palermo and Trapani.

And as we were in March, just before Summer season, it was only natural that we saw plenty of works in progress all across the airport.

Our flight back to the mainland was to Bologna with Wizz Air, onboard an A321neo. They are investing heavily in the Italian market. Just so you have an idea, if on April 2019 they had *zero* flights from and to Palermo according to Cirium, this month they will have 300, being the fourth-largest carrier in the airport.

And a last catch before take-off, this Poste Air Cargo, Poste Italiane’s venture on cargo air transport.

And waving goodbye to Palermo, I had a great view from my window of Monte Pecoraro upon take-off. I hope to be back really soon!