Malpensa Airport

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The Malpensa International Airport (IATA: MXP, ICAO: LIMC; Italian Aeroporto di Milano -Malpensa ) 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.

In the Milan area located next to the Malpensa airport in the central airport Milan Linate and Bergamo, which is mainly used by low cost airlines.

Location and Transport

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

• Car: Take the A8 and A26, the airport of Milan in 45 minutes can be reached.
• Rail: The Malpensa Express reached the airport every 30 minutes 29 to 36 minutes drive from the Cadorna Station in downtown. There are also daytime every 30 minutes from Milan's Central Station at the Porta Garibaldi station with a journey time 43-52 minutes. The airport Malpensa train station is also the starting point of two Frecciarossa - train pairs, which operate via Milano Centrale to Firenze SMN and Napoli Centrale. Since September 2011, Tilo connects the airport every two hours Cadenazzo ( - Bellinzona ) in the Swiss canton of Ticino.
• Bus: From the Milano Centrale railway station there are several buses to the airport. There is also a bus service from Lugano / Mendrisio / Chiasso. The airport is 60 km from Lugano.

History

The Brughiera level in the north- west of Milan is considered the cradle of the Italian aircraft. Back in 1909, directed the aviation pioneers Giovanni Battista Caproni and Giovanni Agusta in Cascina Malpensa first flight field. Shortly thereafter, in the neighboring places Lonate Pozzolo, Vizzola Ticino, Cascina Costa and Busto Arsizio other airfields that served the aircraft and then mainly military purposes emerged. After the Second World War, these airfields were abandoned except for Malpensa and the neighboring Cascina Costa ( AgustaWestland ). A few kilometers further north, however, stopped their work airfields of Vergiate ( SIAI - Marchetti ) and Varese Venegono ( Aermacchi ). In the southwest of the military airfield Cameri completed with the production of Alenia the image. At Malpensa Airport, the Aviation Museum Volandia documents the history of aircraft construction in the region.

In 1948 it was decided to expand the airfield Lonate Pozzolo the new commercial airport. However, it soon became apparent that the financial resources for the new airport with the four planned start and runways were not enough, which is why the government dropped the project and the area been converted into the military training area. Then jumped a Lombard industrialists, who turned with support of public Malpensa. The Milan- Malpensa decreed in contrast to the suburban Milan -Linate over a sufficiently long airstrip, which is why in Malpensa to 1998 almost exclusively long-haul traffic was settled. After completion of the first phase of expansion and modernization work in 1998, you had to move move from Linate Airport to Malpensa foreign airlines with coercive measures for the (partial). Alitalia shifted the focus of its activities from Rome- Fiumicino to Malpensa.

Malpensas development suffered in the years after the decision not to include the more attractive for short and medium-haul flights because peri-urban Linate airport. Since Linate can not be used due to lack of sufficiently long airstrip for long-haul flights Milan Linate has neither in nor in Malpensa on a real aviation hub. Both airports are now focusing on the point-to- point traffic. It is particularly disadvantageous for many operating in Malpensa airlines that commercial traffic in Linate Alitalia subject to restrictions and there controls a large part of airport slots and thus has a competitive advantage. In the short and medium-haul segment therefore seek foreign airlines to take back to Linate distance, including Alitalia Skyteam partners Air France .. The early 2009 of Lufthansa based in Malpensa subsidiary Lufthansa Italia, who wanted to fill a gap in the market by Alitalia's withdrawal, provided their flights the end of the summer timetable 2011 for economic reasons.

Airport facilities

In opened in 1998, located on the west side of Terminal 1 with its three satellites, national and international scheduled and charter flights handled. Immediately on Terminal 1 is also the airport station. The Old North Terminal, now called Terminal 2, primarily use low cost airlines. In the southwest there is a cargo terminal.

The airport has two parallel and extending in a north-south direction, almost four kilometers long, starting and landing strips, which can not be operated independently from each other because of their small distance. Until the Expo 2015 should start a third runway arise in the southwest of the airport, while the local residents have fought (in particular the village Tornavento ) long. Environmental organizations are strongly opposed to the new track, because immediately west of the Ticino Valley Natural Park along the river Ticino followed, which also serves many migratory birds on their way between the Alps and the Mediterranean as orientation and landing area. 2013 the construction project was put on hold until further notice.

In the east border at Cascina Costa on production of the company AgustaWestland on the airport grounds.

Airlines and destinations

Milan Malpensa is the home base of Air One, the low cost airline easyJet has at Terminal 2 one of their bases.

Since the closure of the Alitalia hub in Milan Malpensa, the number of long-haul and Connecting declined. Be directly operated by Alitalia currently only New York City and destinations in Europe and the Mediterranean. In the long-haul segment Malpensa is a further object of several foreign airlines, especially from North America and Asia.

Statistics

Milan -Malpensa is located in the statistics of passenger aviation (2006) with 21.77 million passengers handled before Brussels -Zaventem. In the top 50 of the largest air cargo hubs in Europe he is behind the airports Cologne / Bonn ( 6 ), Brussels - Zaventem ( 7 ) and Liège - Bierset ( 8 ) to position 9

The three airports of Milan Malpensa, Linate and Bergamo produced in 2007 from just under 40 million passengers.