Milan–Malpensa Airport Aeroporto di Milano-Malpensa "Città di Milano" |
|||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Summary | |||||||||||||||
Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
Operator | SEA Aeroporti di Milano | ||||||||||||||
Serves | Milan | ||||||||||||||
Location | Ferno, Italy | ||||||||||||||
Hub for | |||||||||||||||
Focus city for | |||||||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 1,000 ft / 304.8 m | ||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 45°37′48″N 008°43′23″E / 45.63000°N 8.72306°ECoordinates: 45°37′48″N 008°43′23″E / 45.63000°N 8.72306°E | ||||||||||||||
Website | milanomalpensa.eu | ||||||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||||||
Location within Northern Italy | |||||||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Statistics (2016) | |||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Source: ASSAEROPORTI
Statistics from Assaeroporti |
Passengers | 19,320,546 |
---|---|
Passenger change 15-16 | 4.5% |
Aircraft movements | 166,842 |
Movements change 15-16 | 4% |
Milan–Malpensa Airport (IATA: MXP, ICAO: LIMC), formerly City of Busto Arsizio Airport, is the largest international airport for the Milan metropolitan area in northern Italy. It serves 15 million inhabitants in Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria. The airport is located 49 kilometres (30 mi) northwest of central Milan, next to the Ticino river (dividing Lombardy and Piedmont). The airport has two terminals and two runways as well as a dedicated cargo terminal.
In 2016, Malpensa Airport handled 19,320,546 passengers and was the 29th busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. Until 2008, Malpensa Airport was a major hub for flag carrier Alitalia. Malpensa Airport remains the second busiest Italian airport for international passenger traffic (after Rome Fiumicino Airport), and first busiest for freight and cargo. It handles over 500,000 tons of international freight annually.
The first industrial airport was opened in 1909 near the Cascina Malpensa, an old farm, by Giovanni Agusta and Gianni Caproni to test their aircraft prototypes. This airport was then opened for civil operation in 1948 during the war reconstruction period, in order to serve the northern area of Milan.
The site of today's Malpensa Airport has seen aviation activities for more than 100 years. The first began on 27 May 1910, when the Caproni brothers flew their "flying machine", the Cal biplane. In the years that followed, many aircraft prototypes took off from the same site; eventually, it was decided to upgrade the farming patch to a more formal airfield. Both Gianni Caproni and Giovanni Agusta established factories on the new site; the airfield soon developed into the largest aircraft production centre in Italy.