The airport opened on 3 May 1937. It was named in 1937 after Mario Mameli, a bomber pilot from the fascist-era Italian airforce shot down in the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The airport was upgraded in 2003 and the terminal was expanded and provided with 6 jetbridges for passenger boarding, with a capacity of 4 million passengers per year. In 2018, the airport handled 4,370,014 passengers. ==Airlines and destinations==