Venice Marco Polo Airport
Facts on VCE
At just 2 metres above sea level, Venice's airport sits on the mainland near the lagoon village of Tessera, about 7.5 km northeast of the historic city centre it serves.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport is named for Marco Polo, a 13th-century Venetian merchant whose account of 24 years travelling the Silk Road to the court of Kublai Khan gave Europeans their first detailed look at China, Persia and India. His dictated memoir, The Travels of Marco Polo, introduced the West to porcelain, gunpowder and paper money and later inspired Christopher Columbus.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport's foundation stone was laid on 29 March 1958 and it was inaugurated on 31 July 1961, taking over from the older Venice-Lido airfield and becoming northern Italy's reference airport for the Veneto region; it was named for the Venetian-born explorer Marco Polo.
Source: Wikipedia (Italian)
Because central Venice bans road vehicles, the airport is linked to the city not by taxi alone but by scheduled Alilaguna water-shuttle lines and private water taxis that carry passengers directly across the lagoon to stops including Piazza San Marco.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport's longer runway, 04R/22L, measures 3,300 metres, while a modern passenger terminal replaced the older facilities in 2002 to keep pace with rising traffic.
Source: Wikipedia
In 2025 the airport handled 11,850,336 passengers, a rise of 2.2% on the previous year, making it Italy's fourth-busiest airport behind only Rome, Milan Malpensa and Bergamo in the country's northern network.
Source: Wikipedia
A new rail line under construction since December 2023 will connect the airport directly to Venice's national railway network at Mestre; the 8 km route, 3.4 km of it in tunnel, is expected to begin carrying passengers from early 2027.
Source: Wikipedia (Italian)
The airport became the Official Hub of the Italian national football teams on 16 November 2019, under an agreement between operator SAVE S.p.A. and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).
Source: Wikipedia (Italian)