It is published in Milan, Italy, by Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori (former company, now a division of Cairo Editore, a subsidiary of Cairo Communication).
Airone was founded in 1981 as an ecologist magazine primarily containing articles about animal world, nature, ethnology and geography.
[3][5] Between 1985 and 1986 it co-produced with RAI the nature documentary series Pan.
[6][7] In 1989 it was launched a spin-off for the younger readers, Airone Junior, renamed Dodo in April 1995.
[11] In an article about the first ten years of the magazine, the L'Unità journalist Antonio Del Giudice pointed how the magazine was "not just an editorial phenomenon, but also a cultural, political e social phenomenon".