ITALY: Air Italy To Commence Flights To US June 1 to JFK And Miami June 8

Italy’s newest airline is ready to launch long-haul flights under its new callsign, new colors, and recently acquired Airbus A330-200 to New York (JFK) and Miami (MIA).

Air Italy flights to the US will begin on June 1 to JFK and June 8 to MIA.

As the Italian carrier initiates its long-haul adventure under Qatar Airways’ watch, Airways will test its new premium service on both inaugural flights from New York and to Miami.

The Doha-based carrier purchased 49% of Meridiana’s shares back in February this year, then transforming the airline into Air Italy.

Qatar Airways not only invested in the small Italian airline; it also boosted its operations by leasing them five Airbus A330s, which will initiate Air Italy’s international expansion while 30 factory-fresh Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners are assembled and delivered from Boeing’s plant in Everett.

The first ex-Qatar Airways Airbus A330-200 was delivered to Air Italy on May 17, right after the plane was towed out of the painting hangar in Dublin, Ireland, sporting a fresh livery.

The remaining four A330s will arrive in the upcoming months.

On top of these wide-body planes, 20 Boeing 737 MAX 8s will join the Italian airline to boost its domestic and regional networks through 2022, replacing the aging 737NGs in the airline’s fleet.

The first 737 MAX was officially delivered at Boeing’s Delivery Center in Paine Field Airport (PAE) on May 11, arriving in Italy the following morning.

Since then, Air Italy has deployed the aircraft on several domestic runs numerous times per day, including trips from MXP to Naples (NAP), Palermo (PMO), and one hop to Hamburg (HAM).

According to an Air Italy spokesperson, the plane might be deployed on future flights to the airline’s headquarters in Olbia, Sardinia. Airways will also report live from that flight.

The first A330 will then be deployed on the airline’s inaugural trip to JFK on June 1, under flight IG901, departing Milan-Malpensa (MXP) at 13:10, arriving in JFK at 16:00.

The return flight from JFK will depart at 20:30 under the callsign IG902, arriving the following morning at 10:35.

Through the airline’s website, Air Italy offers its passengers to accrue British Airways/Iberia Avios on all their flights.

Likewise, Air Italy will deploy its recently-painted A330 on the inaugural MXP-MIA route on June 8.

Flight IG903 will depart MXP at 13:00, arriving in MIA at 17:45. The return flight leaves MIA at 19:45, landing in Milan the following morning at 11:10.

Airways will also cover the inaugural MXP-MIA flight, with reporters both in the air and on the ground.

Flights to Miami are offered four times per week, whereas flights to New York are set to depart on a daily basis.

Stay tuned for more news and follow all Airways social media feeds for live coverage of these events.


Tourism Observer

ITALY: Milan Malpensa Airport Traffic Up by 11%

Milan Malpensa is the busiest of the three airports that serve Milan, with Milan Bergamo (11.2 million passengers in 2016) and Milan Linate (9.6 million) being the other two airports which serve the city.

Last year Malpensa handled over 19.3 million passengers across its two terminals, which represents a 48% market share of all Milan traffic in 2016, with the city welcoming just over 40 million passengers.

By welcoming 19.3 million passengers in 2016, Malpensa witnessed an increase in traffic of 4.7% when compared to 2015. Looking at statistics for Q1 2017, growth for the year so far is much stronger than last year, with traffic up by over 11% for the first three months of this year, with a little over 4.4 million passengers using the airport.

However, what is important is that most of this traffic is growing from an O&D perspective. During the last winter season, Milan Malpensa welcomed 7.3 million O&D passengers, a record season for the airport, commented Andrea Tucci, Aviation Business Development, Milan Airports SEA.

This O&D traffic figure represents nearly 13% growth on the same season the year before. Tucci commented that this was even more impressive considering it was natural growth.

In 2015 the EXPO was held in Milan and in 2014 Malpensa welcomed Ryanair traffic from Bergamo as it was closed for runway work, so this year is the first to have seen natural growth which makes this result even more impressive.

For this calendar year, the hope is that Malpensa will break the 20-21 million passenger barrier, which is achievable given the current recording for the first three months of 2017.

Looking at the domestic/international split of traffic from Malpensa last year, around 86% of passengers travelled on non-Italian routes, with the remaining 14% flying domestically in 2016. This is the same ratio as was achieved in 2015, while in 2014 international traffic accounted for 85% of passengers.

Looking at the two markets individually, international traffic grew by 4.5% in 2016, while the domestic market shows a 6.2% rise. Looking at the two markets for Q1 2017, international passengers are up by over 10%, while the domestic market is growing faster, with traffic in this sector up 18% for the first three months of this year.

When referring to OAG schedules, this summer’s seat capacity from Malpensa has risen by 14%, matching the growth patterns of passenger traffic for the year so far, with just under 300,000 weekly one-way seats on offer, up from 259,000 weekly seats in June last year. The largest carrier at Malpensa is easyJet, with it occupying 29% of weekly seat capacity in S17.

Malpensa is the airline’s joint-largest base in continental Europe, with it occupying 4.6% of monthly seat capacity in S17, the same as easyJet’s Geneva base, while London Gatwick leads with 12% of capacity. Last year easyJet carried 6.75 million passengers from Malpensa, with 4.6 million flying on international services and over 2.1 million on domestic routes.

In recent weeks the airline has added new routes from Malpensa to Stockholm Arlanda, Granada and Santiago de Compostela, helping the UK LCC report a 3.1% increase in weekly seats this summer.

The next-largest carrier at the airport is Ryanair, an airline which has grown its weekly seat capacity from the airport by a mighty 189% in the last year, with it having been the airport’s 10th biggest carrier in S16.

Looking ahead to the winter season, Ryanair will expand further from Malpensa by adding an extra seven routes, with its next destinations including Alicante, Eindhoven, Katowice, Lamezia Terme, Liverpool, Palermo and Valencia. Malpensa officially became a Ryanair base in December 2015.

The carrier is reporting 45% growth in weekly seats for S17. In total 73 airlines are operating flights into Malpensa this summer, with the top 12 making up 63% of the overall seats when referring to OAG schedules.

Malpensa welcomed the return of Air France and KLM

On 26 March Malpensa Airport welcomed the return of two carriers after an absence of five years, with Air France beginning five daily flights from Paris CDG and KLM beginning a four daily service from Amsterdam.

As a result of both airlines’ return to Malpensa, Air France and KLM have become the airport’s 14th and 15th largest carriers respectively, with both of them sitting behind Italian national carrier Alitalia (which operates flights to Abu Dhabi, New York JFK and Tokyo Narita from Malpensa) in 13th.

It should be noted that Air France and KLM still serve Milan Linate.

With the arrival of Air France on the connection between Paris CDG and Malpensa, the route has welcomed a 45% increase in weekly seats this summer, with the airport pairing already served by easyJet (43 weekly flights). Along with CDG, Catania and Amsterdam (all highlighted in light green) have all welcomed an additional carrier in the past year, allowing all three to climb into the airport’s top four routes, with them joining Barcelona in third.

In 2016 Barcelona was the #1 route from Malpensa.

Currently this summer 152 non-stop destinations are served directly from Malpensa when referring to OAG schedules, with new routes recently launched including London Southend with Flybe and Moscow Domodedovo with Meridiana.