ITALY. New figures show robust 10% year-on-year passenger growth in the first six months of this year at Milan Malpensa Airport. In a rolling 12-month period, the airport has handled 25.7 million passengers, with just under 12.5 million passengers welcomed during the first half of 2019.
These numbers have been bolstered by the addition of 30 new services and 130 additional weekly flights so far this year. The results, presented by SEA Group – which manages the two main airports of Milan, Malpensa and Linate – mean the Italian gateway has delivered 48 consecutive months of passenger growth.
Milan Malpensa now serves 200 destinations in 77 countries, elevating it to the ninth largest hub in the world in terms of country markets served. This places it ahead of airports including Doha’s Hamad International, Munich, Brussels and Rome-Fiumicino International.
SEA VP Aviation Business Development Andrea Tucci said: “In the last ten years the number of travellers using MXP [Milan Malpensa Airport] has increased by 44%. Remarkably this has been achieved with just a 6% rise in aircraft movements.”
Seven of the top ten best airlines in the world, as recognised by SkyTrax, now take off from Milan Malpensa, Tucci noted.
The two main Milan airports closed H1 2019 with a total of 16.8 million passengers, an increase of 6.4% compared to 2018, though Milan Linate was down 3.9% year-on-year, delivering a total of 4.3 million passengers.
SEA said the negative figure was due mainly to the restructuring of both Alitalia and Air Italy at Linate, with the carriers’ major international business routes “still undergoing a period of consolidation”.
It also warned that figures will be negatively affected by temporary closures at Milan Linate for runway maintenance between 27 July and 27 October 2019.
“We are investing around €18 million to adapt Malpensa’s infrastructure and operating systems to welcome additional traffic from Linate,” said Tucci.
The check-in, Schengen gates and baggage sorting areas are being adapted to accommodate the forecast surge in traffic, with a taxiway also being temporarily converted to an apron.
Tucci added: “MXP is going to host in its peak season a 30% increase in capacity that, once the flights return to Linate, can easily be replaced by new carriers and flights thanks to the residual hub capacity in Milan that is not easy to find at many other European gateways.”
