Easyjet: “Malpensa should be more accessible”

“Malpensa Airport has good connections to Milan and the motorway system.” The SEA Chairman, Giuseppe Bonomi, is talking once more about one of the most controversial topics concerning Malpensa: accessibility. The opportunity came during an exchange of opinions with Frances Ousley, the head, in Italy, of EasyJet, one of the airlines with the largest presence in Malpensa.

During the presentation of the EasyJet service in Malpensa, Ousley pointed out that, “There isn’t sufficient accessibility to the airport,” and that additional interventions are necessary to achieve an appropriate level for a modern European city. “The central position of Milan, and especially of Malpensa, is strategic for EasyJet’s present and future.”

Bonomi replied, by pointing out the expansion there has been in recent years. “If we consider what has been done in the past 13 years, I can only praise the commitment of local organisations. Today there are more than 50 trains a day that link the centre of Milan with Malpensa Airport in less than 30 minutes, and this is a level of excellence, even by European standards.”

As for the roads, the SEA chairman pointed out that there are two different motorway accesses (from the A4, via Magenta/Boffalora, and from the A8, via Busto Arsizio), and that access will be improved in the future, also with the new Pedemontana and Brescia-Bergamo-Milan motorway system.

On another occasion, Bonomi talked again about the decline in airport traffic, pointing out that, “The airline industry is suffering the effects of the recession, more than other economic sectors. This is why we’ve been in a recession for 6 months.”

It is the domestic and European destinations, and Egypt that are suffering most, while the Far and Middle East are seeing good results, as are the “BRICS” group of countries (Brazil, India, China, and South Africa), he explained during a press EasyJet conference.

On the idea of Milan City Council selling additional shares of SEA (which is alarming even the trade unions), Bonomi pointed out, “Anyone who does my job is interested in the project of industrial development. If the industrial plan is shared by the shareholders, there are no problems in terms of ownership.”

“F2i, our second largest shareholder, don’t operate according to their own investment fund logic, but according to a purely industrial logic. For example, they share our strategy of creating an airport system in the North of Italy".