Milan Malpensa gets ready to welcome All Nippon Airways in 2020

Japanese carrier will deliver yet more five-star service at Malpensa from Tokyo Haneda to start in summer 2020; Milan s momentum appears unstoppable as traffic and visitor numbers rise.

Release time : 2019-11-22 12:58:17

source : traveldailynews

In these negotiations, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games have also played an important role and it is no coincidence that Milan itself has been awarded with 2026 Winter Olympics, meaning that the connection between the two cities begins under the very best auspices.”

The long-haul carriers keep coming in Milan, as July next year marks the return of Gulf Air to Malpensa, which last served the airport in March 2012 from its hub in Bahrain. The Middle Eastern carrier is the seventh airline from the Gulf region to serve Milan. “Bahrain will fill the only market gap missing at Malpensa without a direct connection to the Gulf area. This new service brings us to the same level as Paris CDG, Frankfurt and London Heathrow in terms of Gulf customer portfolio,” effuses Tucci.

The recent announcements by Gulf Air and ANA follows shortly behind that of EVA Air. The Taiwanese airline will inaugurate a four times weekly flight from Taipei Taoyuan from 18 February next year. “2020 looks like a very promising year already with three new long-haul route launches, especially as it comes after a successful, though challenging 2019,” confides Tucci.

Last summer, between 27 July to 27 October, Milan Linate was closed for runway maintenance and its traffic was temporarily shifted to Malpensa, resulting in a significant spike in the latter airport’s throughput in a period of the year which is already its busiest time. “Malpensa successfully passed the test, having fully and smoothly accommodated +28% incremental capacity. The investments made for the project are here to stay and are ready to serve those airlines willing to invest in one of the few big international airports in Europe with no capacity crunch,” enthuses Tucci.

The return to normal operations has not seen any decline in throughput, on the contrary, traffic is growing in November at 7%, a rate still above the Italian average. In the year-to-date (end October) SEA’s traffic