APCOM

It's been a week of re-launch for Milano Malpensa airport which, also after the partial farewell of Alitalia (whose flights in and out have been reduced by two thirds), is struggling to go back to the levels of traffic registered in 2007. On Monday Lufthansa and Sea, operator of both Linate and Malpensa, signed a deal defining the general conditions of the airport's future development and five days later American Airlines reinstated a daily direct flight to New York.

Since January 2009, six Lufthansa Embraer 195 jets will be based at Malpensa to fly directly to European business capitals: the cities and routes haven't been established yet. The German airline currently operates 372 flights per week to Milano through its Air Dolomiti subsidiary: it is still to be decided whether the future flights will function as Lufthansa or Air Dolomiti.

"The agreement with Lufthansa confirms the will of Sea to work in close cooperation with those who believe in Malpensa's development" Sea Chief Executive Giuseppe Bonomi declared when announcing the memorandum of understanding. "Milano and its region are among the strongest and most important European regions and have a high passenger volume" added Lufthansa Executive Vice President Karl Ulrich Garnadt "By expanding our flight offer, we'll be able to provide an even denser network of routes to attractive destinations in Europe for our Italia customers."

On Friday morning the largest airline in the world in terms of total passengers-miles transported and passenger fleet size, US-based American Airlines, officially inaugurated the route Malpensa-New York JFK from where, through internal connections, it is possible to reach 40 destinations to Latin America, North America and the Caribbean. During the summer the flight will be daily, while during the winter the frequency will be reduced to five days a week.

The Hungarian airline Malev as well has guaranteed new flights to Budapest by unveiling two daily connections with Boeing 737-300. The airlines that have joined the Oneworld alliance, which capitalize on the Milanese airport, has become seven out of ten. As a matter of fact, the coalition also includes British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines and Royal Jordanian.