Lombardy was hit particularly hard by the first wave of the corona pandemic. Not only did traffic at Linate, Malpensa and Bergamo airports largely come to a standstill, but also public life. Demand is only slowly picking up again, even though low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and Wizzair are selling tickets for 7,99 euros and less.

In the greater Milan area, a total of three larger commercial airports are relevant for the lion's share of air traffic in Lombardy. Linate Airport is located within the urban area of ​​Milan and is particularly popular with business travelers due to the short distances to the center. Alitalia is the top dog here, as it maintains a dense domestic network in addition to numerous European routes. There are no long-haul connections from Linate, because the airport is not really suitable for this due to the infrastructure.

The route network from Linate has largely been restored, but is being served to a greatly reduced extent. Unsurprisingly, the lion's share of the offer is domestically, because the frequencies of international flights are still comparatively low, but they do exist. Easyjet, the top dog in Malpensa, is also flying back to Linate.

Lonely but open pharmacy in Milan-Malpensa 2

Milan-Malpensa is the region's major airport and has two terminals connected by a railway line and shuttle buses. This airport was never able to establish itself as a hub because many airlines are keen to offer their short-haul flights from Linate. There is a reason for this: Malpensa is not exactly close to the metropolis of Milan and Linate is much more attractive, especially for business travelers who are often on the move in twice the daily margin. Accordingly, even "before Corona", the long-haul offer from Malpensa was manageable. Alitalia is even withdrawing completely and concentrating on Linate, where the slots are looked after like a mother her baby. In terms of freight, however, Malpensa is the heart of Lombardy.

Until June 15, 2020, only Terminal 2 was in operation for the few passengers who were en route from Malpensa. This was previously used more or less exclusively by Easyjet and is the older of the two terminal buildings. Since then, Terminal 2 has been temporarily closed and flight operations have been relocated to Terminal 1. A bit of a nuisance for Easyjet, because Terminal 2 is characterized by its short distances and in the other building you have to keep walking. But the T2 is not completely closed: The pharmacy was recently reopened because it has to fulfill its supply mandate. Otherwise everything is closed. It is unclear how many customers the pharmacy has every day. By the way: the free WiFi is still in use in Terminal 2.

Just a look at the apron in Malpensa shows that aviation is literally on the ground. Various aircraft from airlines such as Blue Panorama, Neos and especially Easyjet are parked. From a distance you could even think that Terminal 2 is busy, because many Airbus aircraft from the Austrian Easyjet Europe are parked here. In Linate it doesn't look very different, by the way, because there are many Alitalia planes standing around useless.

Both from Malpensa and from Linate there are quite a lot of flights every day, but the occupancy rate is rather poor, as in all of Europe. Transport within Italy is much better than internationally, but that is hardly surprising, because some cities are very difficult or even impossible to reach by land (islands). What is particularly noticeable in Malpensa is that Ryanair and Wizzair in particular offer their flight tickets at extremely cheap prices, in some cases even single-digit euro amounts. Interestingly, apart from Rome, this is not the case on this enormous scale in other Italian regions.

Bergamo is optimistic about the future

Bergamo Airport is also the third airport in Milan. An important pillar is the freight and otherwise mostly low-cost airlines use this airport. The connection to Milan is excellent and hardly differs from the travel time between Malpensa and the city center of the metropolis. The old town of Bergamo is definitely worth a visit, because Milan cannot offer this Italian flair.

In Bergamo it was found that domestic flights are currently more in demand than international travel. "We have found that domestic travel has become an even more important market as the government continues to change border controls and people seek to discover their own nation," said Giacomo Catteno, director of Commercial Aviation. “As a result, in response to demand, Ryanair added additional frequencies on its routes to Bari, Catania, Naples and Palermo from the beginning of October. In total, this additional capacity leads to 12 more departures per week to these four destinations. "

But how did it go during the Bergamo lockdown period? The manager explains: “At the height of the virus in Europe in April we had almost zero passengers and in June we only saw three percent of the passengers we handled in the same month of 2019. In July, however, the airport carried 24 percent of the passengers we handled last year, while the outlook for August was even more positive, we tried to slowly return to the previous year's figures. "This shows that the appetite to fly from Milan Bergamo is returning and we remain optimistic and work with our airline partners to restore services".

Catteno can also report positive things: For the first time, Volotea will also offer the summer route to Olbia partly in the winter flight schedule and Pegasus Airlines is increasing its weekly flights to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen.