May 5, 1991
In northern Italy’s administrative region of Emilia-Romagna, an airport located a mile-and-a-half (2.4 kilometers) from the city of Parma was officially opened. This civil airport was built on the site of an airfield that had existed there as far back as 1923. Regularly scheduled flights at the airport began on the same day as its inauguration.
The airport was named not only after Parma but also composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), who was born in the Emilia-Romagna region’s comune of Busseto. Verdi achieved widespread fame as a leading figure in the world of Italian opera. His best-known operas include Rigoletto, Il Trovatore,and La traviata.
Mark Feeney, an arts writer for the Boston Globe, highlighted Parma “Giuseppe Verdi” Airport in a 2020 article about airports that have been named after either composers or musicians. These airports likewise bearing the names of music icons were also listed by Feeney in his article:
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana;
Warsaw Chopin Airport in Warsaw, Poland;
Leoš Janáček Airport Ostrava in Ostrava, Czech Republic;
Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
Liverpool John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, England;
Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, in Budapest, Hungary;
Salzburg Airport W.A. Mozart in Salzburg, Austria;
and Astor Piazzolla International Airport in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Feeney asserted in this article that “there actually is a connection, metaphorically speaking, between aviation and music. You’ve heard the expression ‘wings of song’?”
Photo Credit: Maxperot (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
For more information on Parma “Giuseppe Verdi” Airport, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parma_Airport
A list of airports in Italy is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_Italy
Transportation History 
Leave a comment