Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport 3.86

Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport, formerly “Campo dell’Oro Airport”, is the main airport serving Ajaccio on the French island of Corsica. It is located in Ajaccio, a commune of the département of Southern Corsica, 5km east of the harbour. The airport is the main base of regional airline Air Corsica, which operates services to Metropolitan France. It is named for Napoleon Bonaparte, who was born in Ajaccio.HistoryCampo dell’Oro, before aviation, was an alluvial plain at the mouth of the Gravona. The meaning of “Field of Gold” remains obscure; some 19th century authors refer to a “rich cropland”; others, to a malaria-infested marshland. A grass flying field existed there before World War II but apparently offered no transportation services, as the first regular flights to Marseille began with the institution of a seaplane service in 1935 from Ajaccio Harbor.In 1940, a Vichy Air Corp unit was kept inactive at Campo dell’Oro. The liberation of Corsica began with the landing by sea in 1943 of I Corps at Ajaccio in Operation Vésuve. A few months later Fighter Group GC2/7 of the Free French Air Force, a French unit of the Royal Air Force, were operational on the grass field at Campo dell’Oro with Spitfires. Heavy aircraft were unable to land and came to mishap in the soft surface.