Malpensa International Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Malpensa International Airport
IATA: MXP - ICAO: LIMC
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator SEA - Aeroporti di Milano
Serves Milan
Elevation AMSL 767 ft (234 m)
Coordinates 45°37′50.18″N, 8°43′41.20″E
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
17L/35R 12,844 3,915 Asphalt
17R/35L 12,844 3,915 Asphalt

Malpensa International Airport (IATA: MXPICAO: LIMC) is located in the province of Varese, near Milan, Italy. It is one of 3 international airports in the Milan area.

The airport is connected to Milan by the Milano-Varese highway as well by a dedicated train called "Malpensa Express". It is also connected to the other international airport of Milan, Linate, by a scheduled bus service. The Milan airport system has another international airport, Orio al Serio International Airport, which serves the low-cost and charter traffic.

Malpensa is one of the two hubs of Alitalia, the Italian national flag carrier, with over 19.6 million passengers in the year 2005 (over 29 with Linate, the second airport of Milan, closer to downtown and over 33 with Orio al Serio International Airport, Milan's low cost airport). Malpensa is the top Italian airport in terms of international traffic, while the second busiest after Leonardo da Vinci International Airport ; it is also the leading freight air gateway to Italy. Malpensa serves a population of over 15 million people.

Malpensa International Airport has two terminals, T1 for commercial traffic and T2 for charter and low-fares traffic. The T1 has two satellites: A - National and European traffic (Schengen area); B - International traffic (extra Schengen area). The third satellite (C) is under construction and a third runway is going to be built. There is also a dedicated cargo terminal called "CargoCity" with over 380.000 tons of yearly traffic.

Before major improvement work carried out in 1998, the airport was used mostly for long-haul flights to the United States, South Africa, and Asia. Flights to Europe, Middle East and North Africa used Linate airport which is much smaller than the improved Malpensa. Today most of these flights, with the exception of some national and European flights using narrow-bodied aircraft have been transferred from Linate to Malpensa.

Because of flight delays and inconvenience, Malpensa has been dubbed the worst major airport in Europe by the EU oversight committee governing airports. (Bramblett. Frommer's Northern Italy 2004, p 260)

Contents

[edit] Traffic

[edit] JAN-OCT 2006

  • Passengers: 18,607,580 (+10.9%)
  • Movements: 208,063 (+8.5%)
  • Cargo: 338,455 (+6.5%)

[edit] 2005

  • Passengers: 19,630,514
  • International arrivals and departures: 16,378,003
  • Domestic arrivals and departures: 3,121,155
  • Transit: 131,356
  • Movements: 227,718
  • Cargo: 384,752

Source: Assaeroporti

[edit] Ground Transportation

[edit] Rail

Malpensa Airport is linked to Milan Cadorna Station (connection with Milan's subway, the Suburban and the Regional Railway Service) by Malpensa Express. Trains depart from Terminal 1 every 30 minutes and the journey lasts about 40 minutes.

[edit] Bus

Malpensa Shuttle and Malpensa Bus Express connect the airport to Milan Central Station (Trenitalia's National Railway hub) and the Subway. Stops at the Milan Fair are provided on request. Travel time is about an hour, but it may take much longer depending on traffic conditions.

A free shuttle bus links Terminal 1 & 2 every 20 minutes 24 hours a day, within the airport.

Malpensa is also connected to Linate Airport and to various Northern cities in Italy and Switzerland.

[edit] Taxi

Taxis are available at the Arrivals of Terminal 1 & 2. The service is not highly recommended, also because of traffic conditions in and outside Milan. The fare to downtown is about €70.

Malpensa International Airport is adjacent to the A8 highway (Milan-Laghi).

[edit] 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 (subcontracted to SEA Handling) 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, ARE Group, Globeground Italia and ICTS Italia. Ramp services are provided by SEA Handling and ATA Handling and are both poor quality but are improving. SEA Handling provides 85% 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.

[edit] Security services

Airport security services have been 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 Customs Police) and Ente Nazionale Aviazione Civile (Italy's Civil Aviation Authority). 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.

[edit] Airlines

[edit] Commercial airlines

[edit] Terminal 1-A


[edit] Terminal 1-B

[edit] Terminal 2

  • Air Italy (Athens, Fortaleza, Fuerteventura, La Romana, Male, Mombasa, Nairobi, Porlamar, Zanzibar)
  • Africansafari (Mombasa)
  • Alitalia (Sharm el Sheikh)
  • Blue Panorama Airlines (Cairo, Cancun, Cartagena, Cayo Largo, Colombo, Havana, Holguin, La Romana, Luxor, Maceio, Male, Natal, Panama City, Phuket, Rangoon, Roatan, Salvador, Santiago de Cuba, Sharm el Sheikh)
  • easyJet (Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin-Schönefeld, Dortmund, London-Gatwick, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Ibiza, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Prague [Starts December 15, 2006], Naples, Palermo)
  • Eurofly (Cancun, Colombo, Dabaa City, Delhi, Djerba, Dubai, Faro, Fuerteventura, Hurgada, La Romana, Lourdes, Luxor, Male, Marsa Alam, Mauritius, Mombasa, Nairobi, New York-JFK, Pointe-à-Pitre, Punta Cana, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife, Zanzibar)
  • Futura International Airways (Las Palmas, Malaga, Zanzibar)
  • Gir Jet (Dubai, Hanover)
  • Jetlink Express (Mombasa)
  • Karthago (Djerba, Monastir)
  • Livingston (Antigua, Boavista, Cancun, Cayo Largo, Djerba, Djibouti, Dubai, Nossibe, Fortaleza, Fuerteventura, Havana, Holguin, Ilha do Sal, La Romana, Maceio, Male, Marsa Alam, Mombasa, Montego Bay, Porto Seguro, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Recife, Salvador, Santa Clara, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife, Zanzibar)
  • LTE International Airways (Las Palmas, Tenerife)
  • Neos (Agadir, Cancun, Capskirring, Cayo Largo, Dakar, Fuerteventura, Havana, Holguin, Hurgada, Ilha do Sal, La Romana, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Mahe, Malaga, Male, Marrakech, Merida, Mombasa, Montego Bay, Porto Santo, Punta Cana, Salvador, Roatan, Rhodes, Samana, Santiago de Cuba, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife, Varadero, Zanzibar)
  • Nouvelair (Djerba, Monastir)
  • Spanair (Lanzarote, Las Palmsa)
  • Sunline (Mombasa, Zanzibar)
  • Volare Airlines (Cancun, Fortaleza, Havana, Mahe, Malaga, Male, Mauritius, Montego Bay, Natal, Sharm el Scheikh)

[edit] Cargo Airlines

[edit] External links