Milan Malpensa Airport

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Milan-Malpensa Airport
Aeroporto di Milano-Malpensa
Malpensa Airport aerial view.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code LIMC
IATA code MXP
Coordinates

45 ° 37 '50 "  N , 8 ° 43' 41"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 37 '50 "  N , 8 ° 43' 41"  E

Height above MSL 234 m (768  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 46 km northwest of Milan
Street SS 336 , SS 336 dir
train Malpensa Express
Basic data
opening 1909 (1948)
operator SEA
surface 1100 ha
Terminals 2
Passengers 28,846,299 (2019)
Air freight 558,481.5 t (2019)
Flight
movements
234,054 (2019)
Runways
17R / 35L 3920 m × 60 m asphalt
17L / 35R 3920 m × 60 m asphalt

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The Milan-Malpensa Airport ( Italian Aeroporto di Milano-Malpensa ; IATA : MXP , ICAO : LIMC ) is the largest of the three international airports in the northern Italian city of Milan and the second largest in the country after Rome-Fiumicino .

Other airports in the Milan area are more centrally located Milan-Linate and mainly of low cost airlines used Bergamo airport .

Location and transport links

The airport is 46 kilometers northwest of the city of Milan in the neighboring province of Varese .

history

The Brughiera plain in the north-west of Milan is considered to be the cradle of Italian aircraft construction. As early as 1909, the aviation pioneers Giovanni Battista Caproni and Giovanni Agusta set up the first airfield near Cascina Malpensa. Shortly afterwards, further airfields were built in the neighboring towns of Lonate Pozzolo , Vizzola Ticino , Cascina Costa and Busto Arsizio , which were used for aircraft construction and then mainly for military purposes. After the Second World War, these airfields were abandoned except for Malpensa and the neighboring Cascina Costa ( AgustaWestland ). A few kilometers further north, on the other hand, the factory airfields of Vergiate ( SIAI-Marchetti ) and Varese-Venegono ( Aermacchi ) remained. In the southwest, the Cameri military airfield with the Alenia production facilities completes the picture. At Malpensa Airport, the Volandia Aviation Museum documents the history of aircraft construction in the region.

In 1948 a decision was made to expand the Lonate Pozzolo airfield into a new commercial airport. It soon became apparent, however, that the financial means for the new airport with the four planned runways were not sufficient, which is why the government dropped the project and converted the area into a military training area . Then Lombard industrialists stepped in and expanded Malpensa with the support of public authorities. In contrast to Milan-Linate, which is close to the city, the Milan-Malpensa airport had a sufficiently long runway, which is why Malpensa almost exclusively handled long-haul traffic until 1998. After completion of the first expansion and modernization work in 1998, foreign airlines had to be forced to (partially) relocate from Linate Airport to Malpensa. Alitalia moved the focus of its activity from Rome-Fiumicino to Malpensa.

In the years that followed, Malpensa's development suffered from the decision not to close Linate Airport, which is more attractive for short and medium-haul flights because it is close to the city. Since Linate cannot be used for long-haul flights due to the lack of a sufficiently long runway, Milan does not have a real aviation hub in Linate or Malpensa . Both airports are now focused on point-to-point traffic . A particular disadvantage for many airlines operating in Malpensa is that commercial traffic in Linate is subject to restrictions and Alitalia controls a large part of the airport slots there and thus has a competitive advantage. In the short and medium haul segment, foreign airlines are therefore trying to gain a foothold in Linate again, including Alitalia's Skyteam partner Air France . Lufthansa Italia , the subsidiary of Lufthansa in Malpensa at the beginning of 2009 , which wanted to fill a gap in the market after Alitalia's withdrawal, suspended its flights at the end of the 2011 summer flight schedule for economic reasons. For the same reasons, Air Italy , which last wanted to set up its main hub in Malpensa , also had to cease its flight operations at the beginning of 2020 .

Airport facilities

Schematic representation of the airport
Terminal 1
Malpensa, at the foot of the Alps

National and international scheduled and charter flights are handled in Terminal 1, which was opened in 1998 and has three satellites on the west side . The old north terminal, now called Terminal 2, is mainly used by low-cost airlines . The two passenger terminals each have their own airport train station . There is a freight terminal in the southwest.

The airport has two parallel, north-south runways , almost four kilometers long , which, because of their short distance, cannot be operated independently. Until the Expo 2015 , a third runway should in the southwest of the airport arise, the residents while (especially the village of Tornavento) have long resisted. Environmental protection organizations are decidedly against the new runway, because the Valle del Ticino Nature Park connects directly to the west along the Ticino river , which also serves as orientation and landing place for many migratory birds on their way between the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea . After the construction project was put on hold in 2013, it was not taken up again in the Malpensa 2035 master plan presented in 2020 . On the other hand, a pier in the south is planned in the area of ​​Terminal 1, if necessary a further expansion of the terminal and a fourth satellite terminal in the north, a service center called Airport City in the west in front of the central terminal building, as well as an expansion of the cargo area in the south.

In the east, at Cascina Costa, production facilities from Leonardo are adjacent to the airport site.

Airlines and Destinations

The low-cost airline easyJet has one of its bases at Terminal 2. With a few exceptions, Alitalia has concentrated all medium-haul flights to and from Milan in Linate and now only offers a few long-haul flights from Malpensa.

Malpensa is served by around 100 other airlines, including some from America, Africa and Asia. Freight traffic is also important.

In 2019, Malpensa took over most of Linate's commercial traffic for three months because the runway there was being completely renovated.

Traffic figures

Source: Assaeroporti
Source: Assaeroporti
Milan-Malpensa airport - traffic figures 2000–2019
year Passenger volume Air freight ( tons )
(with airmail )
Flight movements
2019 28,846,299 558,482 234.054
2018 24,725,490 572.775 194,515
2017 22.169.167 589.719 178,953
2016 19,420,690 548,767 166,842
2015 18,582,043 511.191 160,484
2014 18,853,203 469.657 166,749
2013 17,955,075 430.343 164,745
2012 18,537,301 414.317 174,892
2011 19,303,131 450,446 190,838
2010 18,947,808 432,674 193,771
2009 17,551,635 344.047 187,551
2008 19,221,632 415,952 218.476
2007 23,885,391 486,666 267.941
2006 21,767,267 419.128 247,456
2005 19,630,514 384,752 227.718
2004 18,554,874 361.237 218.048
2003 17,621,585 362,587 213,554
2002 17,441,250 328.241 214,886
2001 18,570,494 323,707 236,409
2000 20,716,815 301.045 249.107

Incidents

  • On June 26, 1959, a Lockheed L-1649 Starliner of the TWA (N7313C) was probably struck by lightning on the scheduled flight from Milan to Paris-Orly about 15 minutes after take-off from Milan-Malpensa Airport. Subsequently, at least two fuel tanks exploded; the machine crashed 32 km northwest of Milan near Varese . All of the 68 people on board specified on the flight plan died, as well as an unborn child and another toddler who was presumably taken on board unannounced (see also Trans-World Airlines flight 891 ) .

See also

Web links

Commons : Milan Malpensa Airport  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f Statistiche. In: assaeroporti.com. Assaeroporti , accessed April 26, 2020 (Italian).
  2. businesstraveller.com - Will Milan-Malpensa become a white elephant? August 30, 2011
  3. airliners.de - Off for Lufthansa Italia
  4. adr.it - ​​expansion plans for Malpensa and Rome-Fiumicino ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Italian) Retrieved September 23, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adr.it
  5. Malpensa 2035 master plan on malpensa24.it, July 4, 2020
  6. ^ Accident report N7313C, Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 23, 2016.