The Milanese should demonstrate today in favour of their airport. Its existence is threatened by the privatisation of Alitalia.

"Let us fly Lombardy. Yes to Malpensa. "The message must now flourish among Milanese shopkeepers. The Lombardy is mobilized to save the city airport, even though the cause seemed lost. The privatization of Alitalia, which is on track should sound the death of the Milan-Malpensa airport.

This week, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, CEO of Air France-KLM, was in Rome as part of the negotiations to buy out Alitalia. He has no reason to make concessions for the airport in Milan, as Alitalia had anyway decided to cut most of its intercontinental flights in a month. On 1st April, Alitalia will reduce its flights at Malpensa from 1238 to 366 per week. Malpensa will lose six million passengers and twenty million euros in revenue per year. 1200 employees and 7000 with subcontractors will be loose their jobs.

Yesterday, the Italian justice has finally dismissed the Italian company, Air One, which asked for the suspension of the negotiations.

"Spacious, bright, convenient access, with a good rate of punctuality". When the airport was inaugurated on 25th October 1998, it had all the advantages to become the hub of one of the richest regionsin Europe. In 2000, when Alitalia and KLM planned to merge, the two companies highlighted its complementarity with the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. "The failure of the talks has ruined this ambitious project," regrets Giuseppe Bonomi, chairman of the SEA, the company that managesMalpensa and Linate, the other Milanese airport. After this failure, in 2003 and 2004, Alitalia and Lombardy have accumulated errors, to the point that Malpensa makes lose today 300 million euros per year.

"The French want to kill Malpensa"

Malpensa was initially cannibalized by Linate. At least twelve kilometres from the city centre, this airport should be reserved for Milan-Rome flights. Four decrees have been taken in this direction but they have not been enough to obtain the transfer of the activity to Malpensa. "I am ready to do it today if another operator comes forward to replace Alitalia," said Giuseppe Bonomi ...a little too late.


Alitalia, for its part, has never fully invested in Malpensa. Every morning, dozens of employees leave Rome, at the expense of Alitalia, to fly to Milan where they are assigned. Finally, Northern Italy, with an international airport every 60 km (Turin, Genoa, Verona, Venice, Trieste), is rather over-equipped. Six out of ten Milanese even prefer take international flights from hubs in Frankfurt, London and Paris.

"The French want to kill Malpensa," declared Roberto Formigoni, governor of Lombardy. But the fact is that Italians have already killed the airport.