Passenger traffic

The Milan airports are among the main European airport systems, with over 31 million passengers transported in 2017. In particular, the Milan airport system ranks 2nd in Italy and 10th in Europe in terms of passenger traffic volumes.

Ranking of the main European airports/airport systems in terms of passenger traffic volumes - 2017 (1000 pax)*

^* Including transits
Source: SEA, ACI Europe

During 2017, our airports achieved an increase of 2,592,520 passengers (+9.0%) and 10,710 movements (+4.1%) over 2016. Regarding Malpensa Airport, the increase came in at 14.1% for passengers and 7.4% for aircraft movements. However, Linate Airport recorded a decrease in both passengers and movements of 1.4%.

Aviation Business performance indicators of the SEA airport system

Malpensa

In 2017, our Malpensa aviation business policy, aimed at increasing territory-serving air connectivity, was focused on the acquisition of new carriers and the development of the activities of those already operating at the airports. Particular attention was paid to the development of Terminal 1 Schengen traffic, which recorded a 31.6% increase, due, in particular, to Ryanair and the transfer of Air France and KLM flights from Linate.

The result for the Non-Schengen area was also positive (+8.6%), with growth regarding Eastern Europe (+17.5%, in particular Russia, Albania, Bulgaria), North Africa (+21%) and Asia (+12.4%). Traffic fell only in relation to South America (-12.6%), due to Latam’s capacity reduction to Brazil.

Number of day time and night time movements* (arriving and departing)

The commercial policy entails constant dialogue with airlines, the pursuit of new development opportunities, with specific marketing tools (e.g. ‘welcome packages’, communication initiatives, participation in international events), and participation in bilateral agreement renewal negotiations with the aim of liberalizing traffic rights and fifth freedom rights. In 2017, negotiations were conducted with Russian aviation authorities, resulting in the signing of a new agreement that calls for greater frequency of service to Moscow and on other routes, the introduction of a multi-designation system and increased frequencies on trans-Siberian routes and more destinations. In particular, the bilateral agreement with Australia was revised to contemplate the previously un-envisaged option of carrying out all-cargo flights, as well as a partial liberalization of capacity that can be operated with code-share flights via third countries. Twelve new bilateral agreements were signed, through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAN), with the following countries:

• Argentina and Sri Lanka in terms of increased frequencies and destinations;
• Australia in terms of the capacity expansion of TCCs;
• Cameroon and Nigeria in terms of multi-designations and increased frequencies and destinations;
• Ethiopia in terms of increased cargo frequencies and fifth freedom rights;
• India in terms of increased points in domestic code sharing;
• Kenya in terms of the broadening of designations and domestic code sharing.

New agreements were also signed with Botswana, Gambia, Rwanda and Kazakhstan, with which no aeronautical relations had previously existed.

Number of arriving and departing passengers

The traffic structure of Malpensa has changed significantly since the Alitalia hub, when the transit percentage was around 30% (7 million passengers). The current traffic is almost entirely ‘originating’ traffic (99%), demonstrating that the airport has succeeded, through diversified carrier offerings and investments in the territory, in stimulating the demand of the catchment area in both outgoing and incoming terms, thus generating over 5 million incremental local passengers able to create greater added value. Regarding Malpensa  Terminal 1, Ryanair has more than doubled traffic, with approximately 1.5 million passengers across 15 destinations. Six new destinations were introduced in the winter 2017 season, two of which domestic (Lamezia and Palermo) and four European (Alicante, Katowice, Liverpool and Valencia). easyJet continued to invest in Terminal 2, with an increase in seats offered of 2.8% and used of 6.2%, and the addition of four new destinations (Stockholm, Granada, Santiago de Compostela and Zadar).

Number of passengers by origin and destination, transfer and transits

Malpensa’s growth was also due to:

• new Meridiana flights to Moscow Domodedovo and Russian carrier Utair’s flights to Moscow Vnukovo, which complete connectivity to all the airports of the Russian capital;
• new Neos flights to Nanjing/Jinan and Meridiana flights to Shenzhen, operated with Chinese tour operators;
• Flybe flights to London Southend, which complete connectivity between Milan and the six London airports;
• new flights to Stockholm with SAS, Norwegian and easyJet connections, resulting from marketing activities carried out in collaboration with the airport;
• the new Egyptian airline, Air Cairo, which introduced two new weekly scheduled flights to Sharm El Sheikh and Marsa Alam.

Alitalia further reduced capacity from Malpensa with the cancellation of Malpensa to Fiumicino flights from February and Malpensa to Abu Dhabi flights from September, confirming only long-haul operations to New York and Tokyo. There were also several frequency increases of around 67 weekly flights on both European and non-European routes. In addition to easyJet and Vueling, increases were recorded for the following: Aeroflot (fifth additional daily frequency to Moscow Sheremetyevo), Air China (an incremental frequency to Beijing in winter), Ethiopian, Meridiana, Norwegian, BMI, Austrian, Wizzair, Air Algerie, Air Moldova, Belavia and Eurowings.

In 2017 a total of 5.8 million passengers travelled to intercontinental destinations, an increase of 5.7% on 2016.

Passenger traffic destinations from Terminal 1 - 2017

Linate

Domestic traffic was substantially in line with 2016 (+0.6%); Alitalia recorded a 2.9% growth from the destinations of Cagliari, Bari, Palermo, Alghero and Pescara, making up for a fall in traffic from Reggio Calabria and Comiso, while European traffic reduced 3.4%, principally due to the transfer to Malpensa by Air France and KLM with the start of the summer season. The cessation of Air Berlin operations in November also influenced results.

Number of arriving and departing passengers

The Linate-Fiumicino shuttle service retained substantially the same traffic as the previous year, once again achieving around 1.2 million passengers (-0.4%).

Number of day time and night time movements* (arriving and departing)

Passengers by origin and destination, transfer and transits