Work completed at Linate, now Milan's city airport is all new
The restyling of Milan Linate Airport has been officially completed, celebrating the end of the work today was [...]
LIN
Work on the restyling of Milan Linate Airport has been officially completed, with President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella celebrating the end of the work today.
In this article:
We had a chance to visit the airport in recent months and appreciated the many new features such as the control area, face boarding, and more.
The goal was to give the Milan city airport a new identity that characterizes its environments, atmosphere and materials in order to improve the traveler experience and passenger customer satisfaction. For the operational areas, the design was inspired by the guidelines of neuroarchitecture, which aims to create spaces capable of eliciting well-being while reducing stress and anxiety to a minimum.
Work at the Linate terminal involved the architectural and functional redesign of the check-in area, security filters and duty free area. In addition, the air terminal was expanded with a new area developed on 3 levels including new gates 1 to 8, a new shopping arcade and a new food court.
The check-in area was redesigned with a double-height ceiling and the inclusion of plants facing the second floor giving the environment a "green" feel. The existing suspended ceilings were replaced with wood-effect baffle slats, alternating with plasterboard sails that enhance the perception of the surrounding space.
An integrated lighting system also allows the curved lines of the sails and LED profiles alternating with the slats to be emphasized. The check-in desks have been reimagined as SEA's brand-identifying elements, with a soft-edged design clad in brass. Ad hoc lighting was provided above the desks made with an overhead band in line with the design of the desks. The area dedicated to security filters, opened in October 2020, was also redesigned. The architectural elements, colors, and materials used for walls, floors, and ceilings were chosen to reduce as much as possible the stress that screening causes to passengers.
Not only that, the security area has been implemented with state-of-the-art technologies that simplify and speed up control operations. In fact, new EDS-CB (Explosives Detection Systems for Cabin Baggage) machines employing CT technology have been installed. The high efficiency of the system enables screening without the need to separate electronic equipment and liquids from carry-on baggage, further enhancing the travel experience.
Innovation in Linate's security system begins at check-in: With the "Face Boarding" system the passenger can match his or her biometric face print with his or her ID and boarding pass, and until the time of boarding, he or she will no longer have to show any ID, thus expediting transit through the various checkpoints.
The real novelty of this redesign is the new terminal area. The old one-story part of the air terminal was demolished to make a new three-level building,10,000 sq m total (approx. 3000 sq m per floor). The expansion of the boarding halls, the new shopping arcade with the new food court, built in a double-height space topped by a "sail," will allow new and more comfortable passenger circulation.
The total investment, including technological innovation (Face Boarding, Smart Security and Self Bag Drop), is 40 million euros.
Now only one piece is missing for Linate to become truly accessible: the subway station. The station is ready, you just have to wait for the first train to arrive.
