Milan Malpensa Airport
Milan-Malpensa Airport Aeroporto di Milano-Malpensa |
|
---|---|
Characteristics | |
ICAO code | LIMC |
IATA code | MXP |
Coordinates | |
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 |
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 .
- Car: Milan airport can be reached in 45 minutes via the A8 and A26 .
- Rail: The rail line to Malpensa Airport runs via the train station at Terminal 1 to the final stop at Terminal 2, several kilometers away, and connects both terminals directly to the city of Milan and the surrounding region. The Malpensa Express reaches the airport every 30 minutes with a journey time of 29 to 36 minutes from Cadorna train station in the city center. There are also trains every 30 minutes during the day from Milan Central Station via Porta Garibaldi station with a journey time of 43 to 52 minutes. Malpensa is also the starting point for two pairs of Frecciarossa trains that run via Milano Centrale to Firenze SMN and Napoli Centrale . Tilo has been connecting the airport with Cadenazzo (- Bellinzona ) in the Swiss canton of Ticino every two hours since September 2011 .
- Bus: Several bus companies offer shuttles to the airport from Milano Centrale train station . There is also a connection to Turin and a bus connection from Lugano / Mendrisio / Chiasso. The distance to the airport from Lugano is 60 kilometers.
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
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
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
- Milano Malpensa Airport website (Italian, English, Chinese)
- Internet presence of the Società per Azioni Esercizi Aeroportuali SEA (Italian, English)
- Information and maps to Malpensa Airport (German)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Statistiche. In: assaeroporti.com. Assaeroporti , accessed April 26, 2020 (Italian).
- ↑ businesstraveller.com - Will Milan-Malpensa become a white elephant? August 30, 2011
- ↑ airliners.de - Off for Lufthansa Italia
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Malpensa 2035 master plan on malpensa24.it, July 4, 2020
- ^ Accident report N7313C, Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 23, 2016.