Wizz Air will commence new flights to Milan Malpensa Airport

Wizz Air, the largest low-fare, low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, announced that it will commence new flights from Milan Malpensa Airport. Wizz Air will initially operate two new routes from Milan Malpensa, to Budapest (Hungary) as of 18 June, and to Bucharest (Romania) as of 1 July.

Wizz Air, who already operates flights to 11 other Italian airports, will begin flying to Milan Malpensa Airport, extending its reach in the northern corridor and securing its position as the leading low cost carrier connecting the region to Central and Eastern Europe. The strong demand for flights from Central and Eastern Europe to Northern Italy has enabled the expansion of Wizz Air’s services.

Wizz Air operate an Airbus A320 fleet, with average age of less than 3 years. All 36 aircrafts are powered by International Aero Engine’s V-2500 engines and equipped with 180 comfortable leather seats. These new aircrafts represent the latest technology, which helps to keep the operational cost down. The fleet will be increased by the addition of new aircraft in the coming years to achieve a fleet of 132 aircraft by 2017.

Wizz Air will increase weekly frequencies from Bucharest to Milan area airports from 11 to 14, with the addition of the routes to Milan Malpensa Airport operating on days of the week in complement to those already operating to Milan-Bergamo. All Wizz Air flights from Milan Bergamo to Budapest will now be served from Milan Malpensa.

Italian travelers will now have improved access to Budapest, one of central Europe’s most popular city break destinations, well-known for its unique history and culture. With an increase in frequencies to Bucharest, both business and leisure travelers will enjoy more convenient access to the Romanian capital, a growing hub in the region.

Prices from Milan-Malpensa to Budapest and Bucharest are available as low as 19.99 Euro (one way, all-inclusive). Seats are on sale as of today on wizzair.com.

“Wizz Air is thrilled to offer our low-fares to passengers traveling from Milan Malpensa Airport to Central and Eastern Europe. These two routes are just the beginning of our presence. We hope to see rapid growth, similar to what we have achieved in other major metropolitan areas, such as London. We started with 2 routes and now fly over 20, Pink and purple will soon be trending on the runways of Milan,” said György Abrán, Chief Commercial Officer, Wizz Air.

AirOne new flights from Milan Malpensa to London Warsaw and Munich

AirOne have announced new flights from Milan Malpensa to London, Warsaw and Munich. The carrier will operate two daily links to London and two to Munich, from March 25. From June 1st  they will operate a daily service to Warsaw. These connections are added to the seasonal flights to Alghero, Olbia, Ibiza, Palma de Majorca, Menorca, Crete and Rhodes and those domestic and international activated all year, giving a total of 21 served destinations.

From September AirOne will launch Milan Malpensa to Belgrade, operating three times per week. This new service will compete directly against Jat Airways, which plans to operate six weekly flights onboard its Boeing 737-300 this coming summer season. Alitalia will continue to code share on Jat Airways’ services to both Milan and Rome.

AirOne, for the Summer season 2012, will fly from Milan-Malpensa, Venice and Pisa to 31 routes, 12 more than 2011 with a fleet of ten modern A-320 aircraft.

AirOne, the low cost carrier of the Alitalia Group has transported 1,4 million passengers in 2011. Over 1,2 million passengers have flown on Milan-Malpensa routes, while from the base in Pisa (inaugurated on July 1st, 2011), AirOne has transported about 120,000 passengers in six months.

Monarch announce new flights from Milan Malpensa Airport

UK carrier Monarch have announced new flights from Milan Malpensa Airport. The new services will offer flights to London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham.

The new routes are part of Monarch’s expansion strategy that is focusing on its scheduled services and expanding its network to new leisure destinations across Europe.

London Gatwick will operate six-weekly flights to Milan Malpensa offering fares from just £36.99 one way including taxes and charges. (£83.98 return)

Manchester airport will operate five-weekly flights to Milan Malpensa offering fares from just £33.99 one way including taxes and charges. (£80.98 return)

Four-weekly services will operate throughout the winter from Birmingham airport to Milan Malpensa offering fares from just £34.99 one way including taxes and charges. (£81.98 return)

Commenting on the expansion plans, Managing Director of Monarch Airlines, Kevin George said: “The strategy for Monarch Airlines is now firmly focused on its scheduled operations and we are delighted to be adding these new routes to our already extensive network of leisure destinations across Europe.

“Adding Italy to our network will further reinforce our position as the leading leisure focused airline serving the Mediterranean and the Canaries. The addition of two new aircraft to the fleet is great news, and marks the start of our fleet expansion plans, which will see the fleet grow from 30 to around 40 aircraft in the medium term.”

Monarch operates scheduled and charter flights from a number of UK airports, including Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester.  Scheduled flights operate to destinations throughout Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Egypt, Turkey and Gibraltar.

Qatar Airways increase flights to Milan Malpensa

Qatar Airways will increase its flights to Milan Malpensa by adding an additional three weekly flights to Doha from May.

The airline currently offers eleven flights per week, seven operated with A330 aircraft (both -200 and -300 variants) and four flights using an A320 aircraft. 

From May 1, 2012 the A320 aircraft will be increased to a daily schedule, offering a twice daily schedule from Milan Malpensa..

The Gulf airlines already have a strong presence in the Italian market.  Qatar Airways already flies double daily to Rome Fiumicino and daily to Venice from Doha; Emirates Airline also serves the same three markets from Dubai; Gulf Air has links from Bahrain to Milan and Rome, while Etihad Airways and Oman Air serve Milan from Abu Dhabi and Muscat, respectively.

An estimated 26,000 passengers travelled between Milan Malpensa and Doha in the last year, but like most of Qatar Airways’ routes point-to-point traffic is supplement by a strong transfer demand (estimated at 84.3 per cent of the airline’s total traffic on the Milan Malpensa route).

Emirates announce third daily flight for Milan Malpensa

Emirates announce a third daily flight to Milan Malpensa from June 1, increasing to 49 the number of weekly flights to Italy from Dubai.

The new service will be operated by a 237-seat Airbus A330-200 in a three-class configuration.

“Our European network is growing stronger and stronger and a number of important developments are taking place in Italy,” said Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ senior vice president, commercial operations, Europe and Russian Federation. “This is another significant investment in the Italian market and we look forward to offering further choice and excellent value for money to travelers and businesses, including the cargo community.”

“Emirates’ announcement of its third daily flight from Dubai to Milan Malpensa represents the importance of the airport to the airline’s European network,” said Giuseppe Bonomi, president of SEA, the Airport Management Company. ”

The increase in the number of flights was made possible by the development of facilities and services dedicated to Emirates into the airport by SEA, contributing to the extraordinary quality of services the company offers to its passengers.”

The new Milan Malpensa service will be operated by a 237-seat Airbus A330-200 in a three-class configuration, adding an additional 15 tons of daily cargo capacity to an already active cargo route.

Ethiopian Airlines new service Milan Malpensa

Ethiopian Airlines on 3 July added its second destination in Italy. From its hub in Addis Ababa, the future Star Alliance member now serves Milan Malpensa with five weekly flights operated with 757-200 aircraft.

By adding Milan Malpensa to its network, Ethiopian reinforces the ties between the two countries enhancing trade and investment. The new services will provide our customers easy and convenient access to Milan, Italy’s city of fashion, industry and art, five times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The first flight event was held at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, VIP Lounge -3 in the presence of his Excellency Mr. Renzo Rosso, the Italian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr. Tewolde Gebremariam CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, invited guests and officials of the airline.

On the launching event, the CEO Mr. Tewolde said, “Our new non-stop service between Addis Ababa and Milan will not only reduce travel time between Ethiopia and Northern Italy but will also create vital connectivity between Africa and Southern Germany, Switzerland, and other Southern European Countries.”

His Excellency Ambassador Renzo Rosso on his part stated that the new services to Milan Malpensa play a major role to enhance the two countries’ political and economic ties as Milan is Italy’s major business and fashion capital.

The commencement of the new service to Milan Malpensa marks the national carrier’s 63rd destination globally, and its seventh in Europe further enhancing the Airline’s commitment to expand its services.

Air China direct flight from Milan Malpensa to Beijing

China’s leading international airline Air China have announced the first and only direct flight from Milan Malpensa to Beijing International Airport, to begin operation from 15 June 2011 The service will run three direct flights a week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday departing at 9 p.m. and arriving at 7 p.m.

The route will be operated using Airbus A330s which offer 206 economy class and 34 business class seats, comfortable new furnishings and video on demand entertainment for all passengers. To mark the inauguration of the direct Milan – Beijing flight, a special reduced fare starting from €300 + taxes will be available from 15 June to 30 July 2011.

“With this new route, which we hope will soon add more flights to respond to the steadily growing demand, Italy becomes Air China’s second busiest hub, ahead of the United Kingdom and France,” stated Them Jiang, Managing Director of Air China Europe. “The new route represents just the first phase in an evolving strategy that places Italy and its business potential in the European market at its centre. Our aim is to offer a competitively priced product with an emphasis on security and quality service, and above all to become a vital link between Europe and the rest of the world. Our motto is Carrying China… Connecting the World.”

No Risk For Milan Malpensa

Malpensa Airport Press Release

The announcement by Lufthansa Italia represents the end of a journey that has been complicated by the impacts of the economic crisis on the aviation industry and the subject of talks between Milan Malpensa Airport and Lufthansa over recent months.

In relation to Lufthansa’s decision to adopt a new strategy for Italy, Milan Malpensa Airport makes the following points:

Lufthansa Italia represents only one of 110 carriers present at Malpensa airport.

The destinations currently served by Lufthansa Italia are already covered by one or more other carriers, which also have higher occupation rates. The destinations reached directly from Malpensa today number 180, of which 97 extra-EU.

In 2010 Lufthansa Italia represented around 3% of group turnover, carrying around 1.2 million of the 18.7 million passengers for the year. This volume can easily be absorbed by other carriers operating the same routes without requiring any particular change in Milan Malpensa Airport,s commercial strategy.

In the last 3 years 38 new carriers have begun operations out of Milan Malpensa offering 42 new connections of which 21 intercontinental, confirming the appeal of the Malpensa Airport’s catchment area. Among the new routes recently activated are Seoul, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Beijing, Addis Ababa, which have immediately shown high occupation rates even in premium segments with higher average yields (average unit income per passenger) than other major European airports.

In the first four months of 2011 Malpensa grew by 9% in passengers carried and by over 12% in cargo transportation.

Milan Malpensa Airport will continue to pursue its existing growth plans which include the hub model option in the medium-long term. The innovative ViaMilano project is designed to further this end, connecting two or more routes operated by different airlines for around 2,000 possible travel combinations and permutations.

Malpensa SEA Group’s business model is based on multiple competing carriers in both passenger and cargo transport and today remains a winning strategy.

Introduced following the de-hubbing of Alitalia which led to the immediate loss of more than 10 million passengers at Malpensa, today largely recovered—the strategy has enabled SEA to anticipate market trends and operate to full capacity independent of the decisions of individual carriers.

Lufthansa Italia to close Milan Malpensa

Lufthansa have announced that it will be closing down its Lufthansa Italia subsidiary basd at Milan Malpensa. The airline launched Lufthansa Italia in 2008.

The subsidiary, which was launched to fill the gap at Malpensa left by Alitalia’s concentration on Rome, will close down its operations on 29th October 2011. The A319s presently operated by Lufthansa Italia will be utilized elsewhere on the Lufthansa network.

Some of the routes presently operated by Lufthansa Italia will be taken over by Air Dolomiti, another Lufthansa subsidiary. Some other routes will be connected via Lufthansa’s present hubs. Lufthansa cites commercial reasons for the closure.

At the same time, Lufthansa foresees double-digit growth in its offering to Italy, which it already serves frequently from its Frankfurt and Munich hubs. Air Dolomiti will also increase flight frequencies to Germany in its route network, which focuses on connecting the major economic centres in Northern Italy with Lufthansa’s Munich base. Together, Lufthansa and Air Dolomiti currently serve 19 destinations in Italy.

Lufthansa CEO and Chairman Christoph Franz: “Bundling our services under the Lufthansa and Air Dolomiti brands will give us a clearer and more streamlined presence in the Italian market. When we launched Lufthansa Italia three years ago, we filled a gap that had emerged in Milan following Alitalia’s withdrawal from Malpensa and the end of our cooperation with Air One. Our service is highly appreciated and the response from passengers in Italy is excellent. However, given the slump in prices on European routes and the competition, it was extremely difficult to establish a profitable European network under a separate brand. It therefore makes sense to focus the Lufthansa Group’s offering on connecting the connecting the Italian market to the Group’s hubs.

Gulf Air Milan Malpensa

Gulf Air will start services from Milan Malpensa Airport direct to Bahrain from Sunday 27 March with four weekly flights.

Announcing the new route, Gulf Air CEO Samer Majali said, “The launching of this new route further demonstrates our commitment to connect Bahrain to the region and the rest of the world including some of the world’s leading financial markets, to support Bahrain’s financial services and trade sector. This was a key component of our new strategy that we announced in November 2009 to make Gulf Air a commercially sustainable and successful business, while supporting the nation’s Vision 2030.”

Mr Majali continued, “By launching services to Milan Malpensa we are not only opening  new doors of trade and tourism opportunities this city offers to the  people and businesses of Bahrain and the region but also bringing new commercial and other opportunities to Bahrain, the gateway of the Arabian Gulf and beyond.”

“Milan is one of the EU’s and the world’s major financial and business centres boasting Europe’s fourth highest GDP. From finance to fashion, from designer automobiles to discerning music, from architecture to art, the city of Milan is undeniably one of the most popular destinations in Europe attracting millions of visitors every year.”

“We are glad to have chosen to add Milan Malpensa to our network allowing us offer our passengers more choice,” Mar. Majali concluded.