Air Italy will return its engine to Malpensa airport

In the basement of Malpensa, there is one area that has not been used for ten years: this is the transit bag sorting system, typical of an airport hub, that is to say connection; these bands in 2008 ceased, with the withdrawal of Alitalia. Today, these machines are restarting, thanks to the fact that Air Italy (ex Meridiana) has decided to install its fleet there and to have a "hub-and-spoke" model. , that is to say a fleet of short and medium-haul intercontinental flights. The pbadenger arrives from Catania or Naples, for example, and continues to the United States or India (and luggage must follow). This is what is called the feederage, and at Malpensa it was gone, relegating the airport to a point-to-point activity.

Air Italy today has a new face. The Aga Khan, the historic owner of Meridiana, holds 51%, Qatar Airways, based in Doha, 49%. Air Italy, until now based in Olbia, Sardinia, is derived from a short-medium-haul line model, plus a long-term mainly charter activity. Now he becomes a global carrier with an integrated network based on Malpensa. In recent months, flights have been opened for New York and Miami, soon added to Bangkok, Delhi and Mumbai. 1 national connections are Rome, Naples, Catania, Palermo, Lamezia, Olbia

In Malpensa schedules will be organized to allow the continuation of the journey. The current intercontinental connections, Cairo, Lagos, Accra, Dakar, Cairo, Moscow, Havana, Mombasa also enter the network. The declared targets are at 2022, when the fleet, today of 13 aircraft (5 long) will increase to 50; of these, body wide of 30, with a double aisle, all Boeing 787 bought from Qatar and leased to Air Italy. As the fleet progresses, connections will increase and the power supply will cover all of Europe. For the long term, destinations whose demand is currently unexpressed will be selected and for which government rights can be obtained.

The 2.4 million pbadengers in 2017 will rise to 10 million in 2022, of which 8 to and from Malpensa, which has the role of a hinge. The project is ambitious and relies on the strength of both shareholders. The total investment is not stated, and the economic and financial objectives are not disclosed: these are important figures; Qatar Airways is a big company, with broad shoulders, and Aga lKhan, for its part, even in the worst years of crisis, has never spared any resources in Meridiana.

The Malpensa feeder will also have a multiplier effect of traffic with other companies; the names of two Asian carriers are already present (the one, Cathay Pacific) close to a code share. Qatar, based in Doha, aims with Air Italy on the Milan hub and is already planning to develop the same model in India, with hubs in Delhi and Moscow. We can ask how much the weakness of Alitalia has favored these projects, and the answer was given by the CEO of Qatar, Akbar Al Baker: we do not want to support Alitalia, we want to replace it.