Air Transport

Italian investigators have opened an inquiry after a Ryanair aircraft touched down on a taxiway while landing at Cagliari today, three days after the airport's runway re-opened after modernisation.

While details of the incident are sketchy, the Italian civil aviation administration ENAC states that the aircraft had been arriving at the Sardinian airport from Girona in Spain.

Ryanair's timetable shows that the airline operates a morning flight, FR9265, on the route. Cagliari Airport's arrival information states that this service landed at 11:32 today.

ENAC has not stated the aircraft type involved but Ryanair has a fleet exclusively comprising Boeing 737-800s.

It says that the flight landed "not on the runway" but on the taxiing strip. Weather data at the time suggests low cloud, light rain and mist, but 4km visibility.

Cagliari Airport's runway 14/32 re-opened on 9 April following a modernisation programme which included installing sensors in the pavement layers to monitor stresses created by departing and arriving aircraft. The data collected will be used to refine maintenance.

In the interim the airport had used its main taxiway as a secondary runway.

ENAC says no-one was injured in the Ryanair incident but it is to examine the "level of preparedness" of the crew. Ryanair could not immediately be reached for comment on the event.