Orio al Serio opened in 1937 as a military airfield east of Bergamo, Italy, and it stayed mostly in air force hands for decades. Civil flights began in the early 1970s under the name Il Caravaggio, honoring the painter born in the nearby town of that name. For years the field handled only a trickle of domestic flights and charters, while nearby Milan handled almost all the region's air traffic.
Everything changed in 2002, when Ryanair chose Bergamo as its first Italian base. The airline marketed it as a Milan airport, and cheap fares combined with a fast bus into the city made the plan work. Passenger numbers climbed from about a million in the late 1990s to more than thirteen million by 2019. That single decision transformed a quiet regional field into one of Europe's busiest low cost bases.
After the pandemic, the airport set new records, passing seventeen million passengers in 2024. That made it Italy's third busiest airport, behind only Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa. Along the way it grew into a serious freight airport too, hosting DHL on overnight runs. Because there is only one runway, the terminal has needed repeated expansion to cope, with growth showing little sign of slowing.