Key takeaways
- Venice Marco Polo handled 10,016,416 passengers from January to September 2026, up 9.9%, on Assaeroporti's count.
- Rome Fiumicino grew 1.1% and Milan Malpensa 0.9% in the same period; no source we found links their slow year to Venice's growth.
- Venice, Treviso and Verona handled 19,078,329 passengers in 2025, our sum of Assaeroporti rows, matching SAVE's "over 19 million".
- Venice produced about three quarters of the three airports' extra passengers in 2026, by our estimate from published percentages.
- Treviso grew 0.7% in 2026 and relies on Ryanair for about 83% of its traffic, according to its 2024 accounts.
- SAVE credits European demand and new long-haul routes, but no source we found measures how much each route added.
- Assaeroporti and ENAC count passengers with different rules: Venice's 2025 share is 5.15% or 5.2% depending on the series.
- The 12.5 million saturation point and 20.8 million 2037 projection are SAVE figures without a published capacity study or approval record.
Venice Marco Polo handled 10,016,416 passengers in the first nine months of 2026, according to Assaeroporti, the association of Italian airport operators. That is 9.9% more than in the same months of 2025. It is also 84.5% of the airport's whole 2025 total, by our arithmetic. Over the same nine months, Rome Fiumicino grew 1.1% and Milan Malpensa grew 0.9%.
Marco Polo is one of three passenger airports in the Veneto that SAVE runs or holds stakes in. SAVE runs Venice, owns 80% of the company that runs Treviso, and is the reference shareholder of the company that runs Verona and Brescia. Venice, Treviso and Verona handled 19,078,329 passengers in 2025 on Assaeroporti's airport rows, which is our sum. Italian law names Venice as one of only three intercontinental gateways, with Fiumicino and Malpensa.
We found no published measurement of why Venice is growing faster than the national market. SAVE points to European demand and new long-haul links. We found no source that splits Venice's roughly 900,000 extra passengers by route or by market. We also found no source that connects Venice's growth to the slow year at Rome and Milan. This report sets out what the counts show, who says what about the causes, and which figures circulate without support.
Three airports, one group and one intercontinental gate
Italy's airport plan is set by presidential decree 201 of 2015. It divides the country into ten traffic basins. The North East basin contains Venice, Verona, Treviso and Trieste. Brescia sits in the North West basin. The decree gives Venice the status of the only airport of particular strategic importance in the North East. It also lists three intercontinental gateways in this order: Rome Fiumicino as the primary national hub, Milan Malpensa and Venice.
SAVE markets the three Veneto airports as the Polo aeroportuale del Nord Est, the North East airport system. The scope of that name varies by source. SAVE's traffic statements cover Venice, Treviso and Verona. The September 2026 traffic note published by Aeroporti 2030 also lists Brescia inside the system. Aeroporti 2030 is an association of airport operators whose members include the Venice, Treviso, Verona and Brescia airports alongside Rome's two, according to il Nord Est on 25 June 2021, so its note is partly the airports' own commentary. Brescia handled 8,320 passengers in 2025, so the difference does not change any rounded total. It does matter when a figure is quoted to the last digit.
The three airports sit inside one region, but their catchments differ. Marco Polo is on the lagoon edge at Tessera, on the mainland north of Mestre. Treviso Canova lies on the edge of Treviso, inland from Venice. Verona Villafranca lies south-west of Verona, towards Lake Garda. Brescia Montichiari, the fourth airport in SAVE's orbit, carries freight and almost no passengers.
For anyone comparing airports near Venice, the three airports do different jobs. Marco Polo carries the transatlantic and Asian routes. Treviso is almost entirely a low-cost airport. Verona mixes domestic flights, leisure charters and European routes, and it is the nearest of the three to Lake Garda. Our earlier report on Italy's airport traffic in 2025 sets these airports against the rest of the country.
What 2025 counted: 19.08 million passengers across three airports
Assaeroporti's 2025 table gives Venice 11,850,336 passengers, up 2.2% on 2024. Treviso had 3,200,130, up 5.0%. Verona had 4,027,863, up 8.7%, its first year above four million. Venice's 2024 figure in Assaeroporti's release of January 2025 was 11,590,356, so the airport added 259,980 passengers in 2025, by our subtraction. The Assaeroporti totals include direct transit passengers and general aviation. We read the 2025 airport rows from a table reproduced by the aviation site Italiavola, which credits Assaeroporti and Aeroporti 2030, because the association's own statistics page now shows only the latest month. The reproduction has no column labels, so we reconstructed them from the sums, which match exactly.
ENAC, the civil aviation authority, publishes a second series. Its 2025 report counts 229,740,554 passengers at 44 airports open to commercial traffic, a total that includes air taxis and general aviation. Its airport shares and rankings use scheduled and charter traffic only (229.4 million), and for Fiumicino at least it leaves out direct transit. ENAC gives Venice 11.8 million passengers, a 5.2% share of the national total and growth of 2.2%. On Assaeroporti's numbers, Venice's share is 5.15%, which is our division. ENAC's report gives no passenger figures for Treviso or Verona. The two series measure the same traffic with different rules, so their totals should never be added or mixed.
| Airport | Domestic | International | Total passengers 2025 | Change vs 2024 | Share of national total (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venice Marco Polo (VCE) | 2,374,111 | 9,452,184 | 11,850,336 | +2.2% | 5.15% |
| Treviso Canova (TSF) | 26,351 | 3,169,069 | 3,200,130 | +5.0% | 1.39% |
| Verona Villafranca (VRN) | 1,517,162 | 2,484,960 | 4,027,863 | +8.7% | 1.75% |
| Brescia Montichiari (VBS) | 911 | 562 | 8,320 | -3.9% | 0.004% |
| Venice + Treviso + Verona (ours) | 3,917,624 | 15,106,213 | 19,078,329 | 8.29% | |
| Italy, 41 airports (Assaeroporti) | 72,057,387 | 156,978,010 | 230,081,011 | +5.0% | 100% |
| Italy, 44 airports (ENAC, different rules) | 229,740,554 | +5% |
The mix differs sharply by airport. About 80% of Venice's 2025 passengers were international. At Treviso the international share was 99%, and its domestic traffic fell 60.2% to 26,351 passengers. Verona had the largest domestic share of the three, at about 38% by our division. Venice's growth in 2025 came mostly from domestic routes, which rose 6.9%. Its international traffic rose only 1.1%. That pattern reversed in 2026.
January to September 2026: Venice adds about 900,000 passengers
Assaeroporti's table for January to September 2026 gives Venice 10,016,416 passengers, Treviso 2,479,729 and Verona 3,481,351. The three together handled 15,977,496, by our sum. Italy as a whole handled 187,124,819, up 5.5%. Assaeroporti publishes the percentage changes but not the 2025 comparison figures on the same page, so the gains in the table below are our estimates from the published percentages. They carry a small rounding margin.
| Airport | Passengers Jan-Sep 2026 | Change | Implied Jan-Sep 2025, approx. (ours) | Implied gain, approx. (ours) | September 2026 passengers | September 2026 change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venice Marco Polo | 10,016,416 | +9.9% | 9,114,000 | +902,000 | 1,340,839 | +14.6% |
| Treviso Canova | 2,479,729 | +0.7% | 2,462,000 | +17,000 | 287,209 | 0.0% |
| Verona Villafranca | 3,481,351 | +8.7% | 3,203,000 | +279,000 | 471,357 | +10.2% |
| Three airports (ours) | 15,977,496 | +8.1% | 14,779,000 | +1,198,000 | 2,099,405 | |
| Italy, 41 airports | 187,124,819 | +5.5% | 177,369,000 | +9,755,000 | 23,928,672 | +6.5% |
On these figures Venice produced about three quarters of the three airports' added passengers. Verona produced most of the rest, and Treviso barely moved. Venice handled 5.35% of Italy's passengers in the period and about 9.2% of the national increase, both by our division. Venice ranked fifth in Italy for the nine months, ahead of Catania, which fell 3.3%. In ENAC's 2025 ranking it was sixth.
The growth sped up through the summer. SAVE reported that Venice handled 3.9 million passengers from June to August, up 11%, and that July and August each passed 1.3 million for the first time, according to Teleborsa on 4 September 2026. Its busiest day ever was Monday 31 August, with 49,298 passengers, according to the same statement. Assaeroporti's September figure for Venice was 14.6% above September 2025. The Aeroporti 2030 note put Venice's third quarter above four million, up 12%.
The 2026 growth at Venice is mainly international. In Assaeroporti's breakdown, international passengers rose 10.3% to 8,020,620, and those on routes within the European Union rose 12.6%. Domestic passengers rose 8.4% to 1,977,489. SAVE's top five markets for Venice in the summer months were Italy with 793,000 passengers, Spain with 515,000, the United Kingdom with 451,000, Germany with 340,000 and France with 312,000.
What the sources say about why, and what no source we found measures
SAVE's nine-month statement, published as sponsored content by ilDolomiti on 30 October 2026, links Venice's growth to the continued growth of its main European markets and to more links with North America, the Middle East and China. il Nord Est carried similar wording the same day as its own text. For Verona the statement cites the ability to attract both inbound and outbound travellers. It gives no reason for Treviso's flat year. It names two headwinds, persistent geopolitical tensions and higher operating costs, with fuel as a main factor. Assaeroporti's national commentary names the same pressures for the whole country.
The routes SAVE has named are a matter of record. Delta to New York JFK and United to Newark became year-round services from winter 2025/26, according to SAVE's March 2026 announcements as reported by the Veneto press. Condor added Frankfurt, Icelandair added Reykjavik and EgyptAir added Cairo for summer 2026. Wizz Air announced a fourth Venice-based aircraft in March 2026, and Volotea a second for 2026, according to Italiavola. Corrado Fischer, SAVE's operations director, said in July 2026 that Venice had recently added Beijing and Shanghai and had about ten destinations in the United States.
Some flying also went the other way. easyJet closed its Venice base in 2025. Camillo Bozzolo, SAVE's director of aviation development, said in March 2026 that Venice grew faster than the market despite that closure. He also said that suspended flights to Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv left the airport about 900 passengers a day short. None of these statements puts a number on what each change added or removed.
That is the gap. No source we found divides Venice's roughly 900,000 extra passengers among new routes, returning routes, extra frequencies and larger aircraft. The Aeroporti 2030 note says more than 540,000 passengers flew on direct flights between Venice and the United States or Canada, without giving a period, and more than one million from January to September counting connections. It publishes no comparison with 2025 for either figure. The same note gives regional growth rates for North America and the Far East, but those paragraphs sit under the Rome Fiumicino section and describe Fiumicino.
The domestic side also grew. Venice's domestic passengers rose 8.4% in the nine months, and domestic travel was its single largest market in the Aeroporti 2030 note, at nearly two million passengers. The same note says about 80% of Marco Polo's traffic is international, with a strong inbound share, which matches Assaeroporti's breakdown. Madrid, Barcelona and Paris were its top destinations. None of these figures says which flights were new in 2026 and which were simply fuller.
Seat figures do not close the gap either. SAVE put more than 16 million seats on sale across its airports for April to October 2026, up 9%, and about 8.5 million for winter 2026/27, also up 9%. It has not published these by airport. Fiumicino and Malpensa grew about 1% while Venice grew 9.9%, but no source we found explains the Rome and Milan figures or links them to Venice.
Treviso and Verona: a low-cost airport and a mixed one
Treviso depends on two airlines. Its operator's 2024 accounts say Ryanair carried more than 2.5 million passengers, about 83% of traffic, and Wizz Air more than 500,000. Treviso grew 5.0% in 2025, then 0.7% in the first nine months of 2026. Its domestic traffic, already small, fell 70.8% to 5,888 passengers. Spain is its largest market, with about 480,000 passengers on eleven routes, and Tirana heads its list of main destinations, with about 350,000, according to the Aeroporti 2030 note. No source we found explains why Treviso stopped growing.
Verona is broader. It passed four million passengers for the first time in 2025 and grew 8.7% in the first nine months of 2026. Domestic flights remain its largest market, with more than 1.2 million passengers, and the United Kingdom is second, with nearly 700,000. Neos, the leisure airline based there, carried about 400,000 passengers (the note does not state the period), and the Aeroporti 2030 note calls it the carrier most affected by the conflict in the Middle East. SAVE has also pointed to Verona's new passenger terminal and to Royal Air Maroc's Casablanca route, launched on 21 June with three flights a week. As at Venice, we found no source that says how much each change contributed.
For travellers the practical difference shows up in the route maps. Verona serves Lake Garda and the city itself, and our Verona travel guide covers the airport bus. ITA Airways plans three daily flights from Verona to Rome Fiumicino from 28 March 2027, and Jet2 has added Bournemouth, its twelfth Verona route, according to SAVE.
Who owns the system, and what the masterplan claims
SAVE changed hands in early 2026. Ardian, the French investment firm, and Finint Infrastrutture, with Sviluppo 87, completed an equal joint purchase of about 100% of Milione, the holding company that controls SAVE, as reported by QualityTravel on 20 February 2026. Neither side's exact percentage was published. The new SAVE board kept Enrico Marchi as chair and Monica Scarpa as chief executive. SAVE also holds a stake in Charleroi airport in Belgium, which handled about 11 million passengers in 2025.
Treviso's operator is small next to its parent. Its 2024 accounts show sales revenue of EUR 22,680,110 and EBITDA of EUR 1,886,687, down from EUR 2,086,231 in 2023. Treviso's passenger count in those accounts was 3,048,943 in 2024 and 3,034,326 in 2023, so the airport had grown less than 0.5% before its stronger 2025. Those are the operator's own counts. They are not labelled as Assaeroporti figures.
SAVE's grip differs by airport. It owns 80% of Aeroporto di Treviso, according to that company's 2024 accounts, with Veneto Sviluppo, the Treviso chamber of commerce, the city, the province and the Fondazione Cassamarca holding the rest. At Catullo, the company that runs Verona and Brescia, SAVE is described as the reference shareholder. Milano Finanza reported a 43.4% stake in September 2023. We found no current figure. Carlo De Paoli became Catullo's chair in June 2026 and Alessandra Bonetti was reconfirmed as chief executive.
SAVE's most recent published results are for 2024. Revenue was EUR 255.2 million and EBITDA EUR 129 million, according to Il Sole 24 Ore. We found no 2025 results. SAVE's own figures for its economic weight have also shifted. In May 2025 Marchi said Venice and Treviso supported about 30,000 jobs and EUR 1.5 billion of local GDP. In July 2026 Fischer said the three airports supported about 40,000 jobs and more than EUR 2 billion. Neither figure came with a published method.
The Venice masterplan for 2023 to 2037 is a company plan. SAVE presented it in April 2023 at about EUR 2 billion, with EUR 380 million for environmental work, and projected 20.8 million passengers in 2037. At the same presentation it said Marco Polo would reach saturation at 12.5 million passengers as early as 2026 without new works. SAVE has not published the capacity study behind that figure. In January 2026 the Veneto press reported a 14,300 square metre building due by summer 2026 and a EUR 85.9 million tender for about 12,000 square metres of extra-Schengen terminal. We found no published record of the plan's final approval by ENAC or of its environmental assessment.
The plan drew objections in 2023. A public debate that year raised overtourism, night flights, noise and the lagoon, according to a Venice residents' campaign site. Our report on Venice's residents and visitors covers the city side of that argument. SAVE's stated aim for 2026 is to pass 20 million passengers across the three airports, a group target that Fischer gave in July.
Rules on the ticket: surcharges, border checks and the access fee
Every departing passenger in Italy pays a municipal surcharge collected through the ticket. Assaeroporti's December 2025 position paper describes seven levels from EUR 6.50 to EUR 9.00. Some regions now pay it for their airports, and the paper does not list Veneto among them. Venice added its own increase in 2023, which took its level from EUR 6.50 to EUR 9.00 according to Il Sole 24 Ore. Italy's Council of State annulled that increase, and Ryanair welcomed the ruling on 4 June 2024. The city then planned a new boarding charge for 2026. La Nuova Venezia reported on 11 March 2026 that it had been postponed again. We found no official table of the current rate at Venice, Treviso or Verona. Our report on the surcharge and Ryanair's growth offer follows the national dispute.
The European Entry/Exit System started at Venice on 20 October 2025. The airport reported 30 self-service kiosks in arrivals, 18 in departures and 24 automated gates, and an average registration time of about one and a half minutes. Treviso had 12 kiosks and six gates, and Verona 21 kiosks and six gates. These are the airports' own figures, as reported by QualityTravel. No public body publishes queue times for Venice. Our guide to EES and ETIAS in Italy sets out what is and is not known.
Venice's access fee is a separate charge. It applies to day-trippers entering the historic city on set days, and it is not collected at the airport. Our report on the Venice access fee results covers who pays and how much it raised.
Getting from the airports to Venice, Verona and the mountains
Marco Polo is on the mainland, so every route into Venice ends with a short land or water leg. The city's ticketing portal describes ACTV's AeroBus line 5 as a 20-minute ride to Piazzale Roma, where the waterbuses start. It also lists the Alilaguna airport boats, without times or fares. From Treviso, ATVO runs an express bus to Piazzale Roma and Mestre, from EUR 14 one way on the same portal. Our Venice travel guide compares the options, including water taxis.
At Verona, Trenitalia sells the Verona Airlink bus together with train tickets. The bus runs non-stop between Porta Nuova station and the airport in about 15 minutes, every 20 minutes at peak times and every 40 minutes otherwise. The bus leg adds EUR 6.00 to a Trenitalia train fare. Trenitalia does not sell it separately, and we did not verify the fare for a bus-only ticket bought from the bus operator.
For the Dolomites and Lake Garda, coach and transfer times depend on the operator and season. We did not verify a timetable for this report. A rail link to Marco Polo has been planned for years. We found no operator confirmation of an opening date.
Claims that circulate, and what the primary sources say
Several figures about these airports are repeated without their scope, or after they stopped being true. The table sets each one against the source behind it, with the outlet and date where it appeared.
| Figure as circulated | Where it appeared | What the primary source says | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Over 19 million passengers in 2025 | il Nord Est, 28 March 2026; QualityTravel, 20 February 2026 (SAVE figures) | 19,078,329 across Venice, Treviso and Verona (Assaeroporti rows, our sum). Marco Polo alone handled 11,850,336. | SUPPORTED for three airports; WRONG ATTRIBUTION if given for Marco Polo |
| 14.8 million passengers in 2025 | il Nord Est, 29 October 2025 (headline) | The article's text gives 14.8 million for the first nine months of 2025 at SAVE's airports; the headline left out the period. The full-year total was over 19 million. | MISSING SCOPE (nine-month figure) |
| North America +6% and Far East +16.8% growth | Aeroporti 2030 note, 30 October 2026 | Those paragraphs are in the Rome Fiumicino section. The Venice section gives no regional growth rates. | WRONG ATTRIBUTION if applied to Venice |
| About EUR 9 municipal surcharge at Venice | Il Post, 26 February 2024 | Venice's increase was annulled by the Council of State in 2024. No official current rate by airport is published. | SUPERSEDED |
| New Venice boarding charge from 1 January 2026 | Prima Venezia, 18 February 2025 | La Nuova Venezia, 11 March 2026: postponed again. | SUPERSEDED |
| Marco Polo saturates at 12.5 million in 2026 | QualityTravel, 27 April 2023 (SAVE masterplan presentation) | No capacity study published. The airport handled 11.85 million in 2025. | NOT SUPPORTED |
| 30,000 jobs and EUR 1.5 billion of GDP; 40,000 jobs and over EUR 2 billion | Il Sole 24 Ore, 26 May 2025 (Marchi); Milano Finanza, 23 July 2026 (Fischer) | Company statements with different airport scopes and no published method. | UNVERIFIED (company figures, different scopes) |
What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts
Travelers have three real options when looking at airports near Venice, and the numbers say they suit different trips. Marco Polo carries the long-haul flights and most of the extra passengers in 2026, and it had its busiest day on record this summer, with 49,298 passengers on 31 August. Treviso remains a Ryanair and Wizz Air airport, linked to Venice by the ATVO express bus. Verona is the practical choice for Lake Garda and the city of Verona. Check your airport's border kiosks if you hold a passport from outside the Schengen area, and expect the municipal surcharge to be built into your fare.
Tourism businesses and investors should treat SAVE's explanations as company positioning. The company's growth claims match the Assaeroporti counts, but its seat figures are not split by airport, its jobs and GDP figures changed scope between 2025 and 2026, and its latest public accounts are for 2024. The masterplan's 20.8 million passenger projection for 2037 and its 12.5 million saturation point are company figures without a published capacity study or a final approval we could find. Treviso's flat year and heavy reliance on Ryanair are a concentration risk that the public numbers show clearly.
Journalists and analysts should name the series on every figure. Assaeroporti and ENAC count Venice differently, and every 2026 passenger gain in circulation is an estimate from rounded percentages. Do not repeat the North America and Far East growth rates as Venice figures, the EUR 9 Venice surcharge as current, or the 12.5 million ceiling as a measured limit. SAVE's system figures sometimes include Brescia and sometimes do not. At 8,320 passengers in 2025 Brescia changes no rounded total, but it matters in exact sums.
Data & sources
Period covered: 2024 to September 2026 (full-year 2025 counts; January to September 2026 counts)
- Assaeroporti, Statistiche (September 2026 release) · Airport-level passengers, movements and cargo for September and January to September 2026, 41 airports; includes direct transit and general aviation Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- 2025 airport table reproduced by Italiavola, crediting Assaeroporti and Aeroporti 2030 · Full-year 2025 passengers by airport; column labels absent in the reproduction and reconstructed from sums (domestic, international, transit, general aviation); the association's own page shows only the latest month Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Assaeroporti, Consuntivo 2024 press release · 2024 national total and Venice's 11,590,356 passengers, released 31 January 2025 Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025 (version 0.7) · Civil aviation authority report: 229,740,554 passengers at 44 airports open to commercial traffic, including air taxis and general aviation; shares and rankings use scheduled and charter traffic (229.4 million); direct transit excluded at least for Fiumicino; Venice 11.8 million Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Aeroporti 2030, Dati di traffico settembre 2026, nota di commento · Commentary by an association of airport operators whose members include the Venice, Treviso, Verona, Brescia and Rome airports, with separate sections for the Venice system, Treviso, Verona and Rome Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- SAVE traffic statements, as reported by il Nord Est · 2025 and January to September 2026 figures for Venice, Treviso and Verona, routes and seat capacity (28 March and 30 October 2026) Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Aeroporto di Treviso (AerTre), financial statements at 31 December 2024 · Treviso passengers 2023 and 2024, Ryanair and Wizz Air shares, shareholders Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Presidential decree 201/2015 (Normattiva) · National airport plan: traffic basins, Venice's strategic status and the three intercontinental gateways Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
Methodology
Passenger counts come from Assaeroporti's statistics page (September 2026 release, read 7 November 2026), the 2025 airport table reproduced by Italiavola (credited to Assaeroporti and Aeroporti 2030), Assaeroporti's release on 2024 traffic and ENAC's Dati di traffico 2025 (version 0.7). Company statements come from SAVE as reported by il Nord Est, ilDolomiti (sponsored text carrying SAVE's own statement), Teleborsa, Milano Finanza, Il Sole 24 Ore and QualityTravel, and from the Aeroporti 2030 note of 30 October 2026; Aeroporti 2030's membership comes from il Nord Est (25 June 2021). Airline aircraft-basing announcements come from Italiavola. Ownership comes from QualityTravel, il Nord Est, Milano Finanza and the 2024 accounts of Aeroporto di Treviso. Rules come from presidential decree 201/2015, Assaeroporti's December 2025 position paper on the municipal surcharge, a Ryanair release of 4 June 2024 and La Nuova Venezia. Ground transport comes from the Venezia Unica city ticketing portal and Trenitalia's Verona Airlink page.
Limitations: (1) Assaeroporti's own 2025 airport page could not be opened, so its rows come from a reproduction credited to Assaeroporti and Aeroporti 2030, whose column labels we reconstructed from the sums, which match exactly. (2) Assaeroporti publishes 2026 percentage changes but not the 2025 comparison values on the same page, so every 2026 gain is derived and carries a rounding margin. (3) ENAC publishes no 2025 passenger figures for Treviso or Verona, and its total and its shares use slightly different traffic bases (229.7 and 229.4 million). (4) SAVE's own press releases could not be opened directly; its figures are taken from press reports, and its cause statement from ilDolomiti's sponsored content. (5) No airport-level figures for 2019 or 2023 from Assaeroporti, and no Eurostat airport data, were used. (6) The current municipal surcharge rate by airport, SAVE's 2025 accounts, SAVE's current stake in Catullo and the masterplan's approval status were not found. (7) Fare and timetable details for Alilaguna, ATVO's Marco Polo services, Dolomites coaches and bus-only Verona Airlink tickets were not verified with operators.
Where two series give different values, both are shown with their scope, and the series is named on every figure. Rounded company figures are reported as rounding of the Assaeroporti count, not as separate data. Causes are attributed to the person or body that stated them; this report does not assign causes itself, and where we found no source that measures a cause the text says so. Claims that circulated without a source, or after being superseded, are listed in the claims table with the outlet and date where they appeared and what the primary source shows.
Notes on the data
No official source we found publishes a breakdown of Venice airport's 2026 growth by route, airline or market, and SAVE does not publish seat capacity by airport; this report uses Assaeroporti's monthly and cumulative airport counts, ENAC's 2025 report, the note of Aeroporti 2030 (an association of airport operators whose members include SAVE's airports) and SAVE statements as reported by the press, one of them as sponsored content. Assaeroporti's 2025 airport rows were read from a table reproduced by Italiavola, which credits Assaeroporti and Aeroporti 2030, because the association's own page shows only the latest month; the column labels were reconstructed from sums. Contested figures: Venice's 2025 traffic is 11,850,336 (+2.2%) on Assaeroporti and 11.8 million (+2.2%) on ENAC; its national share is 5.15% (our division of Assaeroporti figures) or 5.2% (ENAC); the national 2025 total is 230,081,011 (Assaeroporti, 41 airports) or 229,740,554 (ENAC, 44 airports, including air taxis and general aviation); Venice's January to September 2026 growth is +9.9% (Assaeroporti) or +10% (SAVE); Treviso's is +0.7% (Assaeroporti) or "in line" (SAVE); Verona's 2025 growth is +8.7% (Assaeroporti) or +9% (SAVE); SAVE's economic impact claims are about 30,000 jobs and EUR 1.5 billion for Venice and Treviso (May 2025) and about 40,000 jobs and over EUR 2 billion for three airports (July 2026). Claims that failed verification: Marco Polo saturation at 12.5 million in 2026 (no capacity study published); the 14.8 million figure for 2025 (a nine-month figure headlined without its period); about EUR 9 surcharge at Venice (superseded by the 2024 annulment); a new Venice boarding charge from January 2026 (postponed); North America and Far East growth rates attributed to Venice (they describe Fiumicino); a current SAVE stake in Catullo (only a 2023 figure of 43.4% was found). Derived figures, all ours: the three-airport totals, all national shares, Venice's 2025 gain of 259,980, the implied January to September 2025 bases and 2026 gains (from percentages rounded to one decimal place), Venice's share of the three-airport and national gains, and Venice's January to September 2026 total as a share of its 2025 total. Company figures: passenger statements, route announcements, seat capacity, peak-day records, EES kiosk counts and registration times, masterplan projections and economic impact numbers come from SAVE, its airports or its officers, and aircraft-basing announcements from Wizz Air and Volotea as reported by Italiavola; none has been independently verified.
Frequently asked questions
What are the airports near Venice, Italy?
Three airports serve Venice. Venice Marco Polo (VCE) is the main one, with 11,850,336 passengers in 2025 according to Assaeroporti. Treviso Canova (TSF) handled 3,200,130 and is used mainly by Ryanair and Wizz Air. Verona Villafranca (VRN) handled 4,027,863 and is the nearest of the three to Lake Garda. SAVE runs Venice, owns 80% of Treviso's operator and is the reference shareholder of Verona's.
How many passengers did Venice Marco Polo handle in 2025?
Assaeroporti counted 11,850,336 passengers, up 2.2% on 11,590,356 in 2024. ENAC, which counts with different rules, gives 11.8 million and a 5.2% share of the Italian total. Both figures are correct for their own series.
How fast is Venice airport growing in 2026?
From January to September 2026, Marco Polo handled 10,016,416 passengers, 9.9% more than a year earlier, according to Assaeroporti. September alone was up 14.6%. The national market grew 5.5% over the nine months.
Why is Venice airport growing faster than Rome and Milan?
We found no published measurement. SAVE links Venice's growth to European demand and new routes to North America, the Middle East and China. No source we found splits the roughly 900,000 extra passengers by route, or connects Venice's growth to Fiumicino's 1.1% or Malpensa's 0.9%.
Is the "over 19 million passengers" figure for Marco Polo?
No. It is the 2025 total for Venice, Treviso and Verona combined. On Assaeroporti's airport rows the three handled 19,078,329, by our sum. Marco Polo alone handled 11,850,336.
Who owns Venice airport?
SAVE manages Marco Polo. In February 2026, Ardian and Finint Infrastrutture, with Sviluppo 87, completed an equal purchase of about 100% of Milione, the holding company that controls SAVE, as reported by QualityTravel. SAVE owns 80% of Treviso's operator and is the reference shareholder of Catullo, which runs Verona and Brescia.
How much is the airport tax at Venice?
Italy's municipal surcharge ranges from EUR 6.50 to EUR 9.00 per departing passenger, according to Assaeroporti. Venice's own 2023 increase was annulled by the Council of State in 2024, and a new city boarding charge was postponed again in March 2026. We found no official table of the current rate at Venice, Treviso or Verona.
How do I get from Marco Polo airport to Venice?
The city's ticketing portal describes ACTV's AeroBus line 5 as a 20-minute ride to Piazzale Roma, where waterbuses start, and also lists Alilaguna airport boats to the historic centre. From Treviso, the ATVO express bus to Piazzale Roma costs from EUR 14 one way.
Does the Venice access fee apply at the airport?
No. The access fee applies to day-trippers entering the historic city on set days. It is not collected at Marco Polo, Treviso or Verona.