Milano Malpensa Airport "City of Milan" (IATA: MXP, ICAO: LIMC), former "Aeroporto Città di Busto Arsizio"^[3][4] is the largest airport of Milan, northern Italy. The first industrial airport was opened in 1909 by Giovanni Agusta and Gianni Caproni to test their prototypes, near the Cascina Malpensa, an old farm. The civil flight airport was then opened in 1948, during war reconstruction, to serve the northern area of Milan. Until recently, it was a major hub for Alitalia, but now serves as a hub for long-haul flights and low cost carriers. It is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest^[5] of central Milan, Italy. It is one of 3 airports in the Milan metropolitan area.

The airport is in the Province of Varese, within the communes of Cardano al Campo, Somma Lombardo, Casorate Sempione, Ferno, Lonate Pozzolo, Samarate, and Vizzola Ticino.^{[citation needed]} The airport is connected to Milan by the Milano-Varese highway as well as by the "Malpensa Express" train starting from the Milan Cadorna railway station (LeNord regional railways) and taking about 2936 minutes. It is also connected to Linate Airport by a scheduled bus service and by Milan's local transportation. The Milan airport system has a third international airport, Orio al Serio Airport, which serves low-cost traffic.^{[citation needed]}

Malpensa was the 21st busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers, handling 18,947,808 passengers in 2010^[2] and 18,537,301 in 2012.^[2] As of early 2008, Malpensa remains the top Italian airport in terms of international traffic, together with Rome Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in terms of total passengers. As far as hub transit passengers are concerned it is also the second airport in Italy after Rome, according to ASSAEROPORTI traffic data. It is also the leading air freight gateway to Italy. Malpensa serves a population of over 15 million inhabitants.

EasyJet has a dedicated Terminal (T2) and Malpensa is the company's biggest base outside the United Kingdom.

In 2008 Lufthansa announced plans to create its first Hub outside Germany, and its fourth European hub, at Milan Malpensa airport.^[6] In October 2008, Lufthansa set up its Italian division, Lufthansa Italia. Operations commenced on 2 February 2009, and ceased on October 30, 2011 as Lufthansa abandoned plans to create a hub at Malpensa airport.

Malpensa has two terminals and a third runway has been announced, with completion set for 2012.^[7] There is also a dedicated cargo terminal called "CargoCity", which currently handles over 410,000 tons of yearly traffic.

Ground handling

Ground handling services have been slowly deregulated and have seen SEA (the airport authority) create SEA Handling and the arrival of private handler ATA Handling. ATA Handling provides all services apart from bus transport to/from aircraft (originally subcontracted to SEA Handling, now subcontracted to Air Pullman) and disabled assistance. Up to 2001 all ground handling services were provided by SEA and TWA. In the first few years of deregulation some airlines put their own staff for customer assistance but Air One and British Airways realised that it was too expensive and so dismissed them. United Airlines stopped flying to Malpensa. To date the only airline with its own check-in staff remains KLM. Passenger handling is provided by SEA Handling, ATA Handling, Aviapartner, Globeground Italia and ICTS Italia. Ramp services are provided by SEA Handling, ATA and recently Aviapartner. SEA Handling provides 80% of ramp services mostly thanks to its major customer Alitalia.

In May 2006, Italy's Civil Aviation Authority took off the limitation of two ramp handlers. Aviapartner and ARE Group announced that they would create a new company called Aviapartner (owned 51% by Aviapartner and 49% ARE Group) to serve Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino. There are fears that luggage mishandling will go up.

Aviapartner has started operating serving Iberia flights and signing more contracts as time has gone on. However, SEA Handling maintains a dominant position and is reorganising itself to be more competitive by going from a monopolistic mentality to a free market one.

Security services

Airport security services were transferred in 2000 from the Polizia di Stato (State Police) to SEA which created an internal division called SEA Airport Security. Up to 2002, SEA was assisted by IVRI in providing security services but the contract was not renewed. SEA Airport Security is supervised by Polizia di Stato (Italian State Police), Guardia di Finanza (Italian Military Customs Police) and Ente Nazionale Aviazione Civile (Italy's Civil Aviation Authority). Carabinieri supervise ramp entrance. Furthermore some airlines rely on private security companies (such as ICTS Italia, SEA Airport Security, Gruppo Sicurezza etc.) to provide ID check and airplane guarding.

Terminals

Malpensa has two terminals:

Terminal 1

• Is divided into three sections:
  • 1A, which handles domestic and intra-Schengen flights
  • 1B, which handles non-Schengen and some intercontinental flights
  • 1C, which handles non-Schengen and some intercontinental flights, opened in January 2013
• Volareweb.com, when it existed, had its head office in the Area Tecnica Sud, in Terminal 1 and in Ferno^[8]

Terminal 2

• is used by Low Cost Carriers (currently only EasyJet). Previously Terminal 2 was also used for charter services. Charter flights are now operated from Terminal 1.

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled

Notes

• ^1 All these flights have an intermediate stop before arriving at their listed destinations, but the airline does not have local traffic rights on the leg.
• ^2 Some flights of this line have an intermediate stop before arriving at their listed destinations, but the airlines doe non have local traffic rights on the leg.

Charter

Cargo

Traffic and statistics

Transport links

Rail

• Malpensa Aeroporto railway station is linked to Milan Cadorna Station (connection with Milan's subway's Line M2 (Green) and Line M1 (Red), and the Suburban and the Regional Railway Service) by the Malpensa Express, with intermediate stops at Busto Arsizio FNM, Saronno Centrale (connection with regional trains bound for Varese and Como) and Milano Bovisa (connection with the Passante track of the suburban railways). Malpensa Express arrives at the Terminal 1, an additional bus travel is required to reach Terminal 2. Journey time is 29 minutes for non-stop services and 34 minutes for services calling at Busto Arsizio, Saronno and Bovisa.^[17]

• A second Express service to Milan Central Station began with the winter rail schedule change (13 December 2010). There is a train every 30 minutes, also stopping at Milan Porta Garibaldi station; journey time is 41 minutes. During rush hours, services also call at Milano Bovisa station and Saronno Centrale; for these services journey time is 47 minutes.^[18]

• Two daily High Speed (Alta Velocità) services link Milan Malpensa's railway station, to Florence (calling at Milano Centrale, Bologna Centrale and Firenze Santa Maria Novella) and Naples (calling at Milano Centrale, Bologna Centrale, Firenze Santa Maria Novella, Roma Termini, Napoli Centrale).^[19] As of October 2012, the service was terminated.

• Suburban Line S10 (Milano Rogoredo-Milano Bovisa) has been running to Malpensa since June 2010.^[20] Trains call at: Ferno, Busto Arsizio, Castellanza, Rescaldina, Saronno Centrale, Milano Bovisa, Milano Lancetti, Milano Porta Garibaldi M2 (Green), Milano Repubblica M3 (Yellow), Milano Porta Venezia M1 (Red), Milano Dateo and Milano Porta Vittoria. As of October 2012, the service was terminated.

• There is also a shuttle connection between Malpensa Airport railway station and Busto Arsizio FS.^[21] From here there are connections with Milan's railway stations of Milano Centrale and Milano Porta Garibaldi.

• The Malpensa Varese Mendrisio (CH) Lugano (CH) line is being built and will be finished by 2012. There are future plans also to connect Gallarate Station (FS) and Milan's Centrale Station (FS) allowing for easy connections onto high-speed international lines.

Bus

Malpensa Shuttle and Malpensa Bus Express connect the airport to Milan Central Station (Trenitalia's National Railway hub) and the metro. Stops at the Milan Fair are provided on request. Travel time is about an hour (longer during heavy traffic).

A free shuttle bus links Terminal 1 & 2 every 7 minutes 24 hours a day, within the airport. Travel time to go from one terminal to the other is about 15 minutes.

Malpensa is also connected by bus to Linate Airport and to various cities in northern Italy with Lufthansa Airport Bus(like Turin, Novara, Como, Varese, Bergamo and Brescia) and Switzerland.

Since February 2010, Lufthansa Airport Bus, in partnership with Autostrade SpA, connects Milan Central Station, with Terminal 1 & 2, with stops in Fieramilanocity and Milan Fair Rho/Pero on request, every 20 minutes. Furthermore this new service links the Airport with the nearby Lombard provinces of Varese, Como, Bergamo and Brescia, those of Alessandria, Novara and Turin in Piedmont, Genoa in Liguria and also Bellinzona, Chiasso and Lugano in Switzerland. For these destinations passengers can also enjoy an additional limousine transfer service with high-end car or minibus (max. 8 people) bookable until 24 hours.^[22]

Taxi

Taxis are available at the Arrivals of Terminal 1 & 2.

Automobile connections

Malpensa Airport is connected by a four-lane highway to the A8 motorway (connecting Switzerland to Milan) and by a five-lane highway to the A4 motorway linking Milan to Turin and to the Strada Statale 11.

References

External links

• Milano Malpensa 1 Airport Official website
• Milano Malpensa 2 Airport Official website
• SEA SpA Official website
• Malpensa Airport AOC & USERS Committees MXP Milan
• Malpensa Airport information
• Current weather for LIMC at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for MXP at Aviation Safety Network
• Malpensa Airport News
• Malpensa Airport Forum (Italian)