Fiumicino superstar, Malpensa in anonymity: why the Lombard airport is increasingly detached from the Roman one
There is a gap that has been widening monstrously between our country's two main airport gateways-Rome Fiumicino [...]
MXP
There is a gap that has been widening monstrously between our country's two main airport gateways-Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa.
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We are not talking about passenger traffic, which however sees the Leonardo Da Vinci excel over Lombardy airport by a margin of some 20 million passengers, a result largely due to the presence at the Roman airport of ITA Airways' main hub as well as the fragmentation of the Lombardy airport system, Where Linate and Bergamo Orio al Serio 'suck in' thirty million passengers from what would be the natural catchment area of northern Italy's main airport.
Instead, we are referring to the different approval ratings of the two airports among passengers and air transport industry rating agencies. In this area, Fiumicino has had the wind definitely in its sails for some years now, while Malpensa continues to remain in anonymity.
Leonardo Da Vinci's 'ascent' in the Skytrax World Airports Awards ranking. has no equal in the world: The awards (whose last edition, the 2025 edition, was held last March) have existed since 2012. Well, In 2017, Fiumicino occupied the 158th position in that ranking.
From the following year, with the opening of some new parts of the terminal, the upgrading of others, and the adoption of state-of-the-art passenger flow control technologies, the rise began, bringing it into 85th position in 2018, in 82nd in 2019, in 58th in 2020, in 36th in 2021, in 24th in 2022, in 13th in 2023, 12th in 2024 until entering the top 10 (in 8th place) this yearo, when Fiumicino was Also voted 'Best Airport in Europe' among those with traffic between 40 and 50 million passengers.
In these same years, the roman stopover grabbed the 5 Stars (highest rating) again from Skytrax, in addition to being 'Best airport in Europe' for seven consecutive years according to Airport Council, the association that brings together some 600 stopovers in 55 countries around the world.
On the Milan front, the'only airport that 'shines' is the 'new' (since it is already a few years old) Linate, which has won the title of 'Best Airport in Europe' in its traffic category on several occasions from ACI Europe and this year also received a 'Special Mention' from the same organization.
Things glitter far less at Malpensa. The airport in recent years, Has never received any mention from ACI, while in Skytrax's ranking appeared among the top 100 in the world only between 2020 and 2024, always in high and declining positions: in fact, if in 2019 it occupied 99th position and in 2021 it rose up to 78th, in 2022 it fell to 83rd, in 2023 to 86th, and in 2024 to 88th, finishing outside the top 100 again this year.
The reasons for this little 'hype' generated by Malpensa are different and not at all related to its distance from Milan, to which it is excellently connected. They lie instead in Mainly infrastructural and customer focus factors.
The Schengen area is, on peak days and hours, as well as in the summer season, always crowded. The airport has just about 30 boarding bridges. scattered over three different 'docks' and gate buses are often not worthy of a low-cost airport As for looks and amenities.
On only one aspect could it be said that the two airports are (almost) on par: the lounges. At Malpensa the supply/quality of lounges is modest, partly because the airport operator, SEA, has not opened up to private operators (Premium Plaza, Prime Class, etc.), but has kept the sector to itself. At Fiumicino, on the other hand, there is no shortage of level signs, but the space With chronically crowded and very small lounges.
Finally at Malpensa, baggage reclaim times continue to be prolonged, even worse, unpredictable. FCO does not shine on this either, But it performs significantly better than the Lombardy airport.
The Lombardy airport has an ambitious development project in the bag called 'Malpensa 2035' which was given the green light by the Services Conference last November and which envisages, among other things, an extension of Terminal 1 to the south with the construction of five new boarding bridges, the extension of T1 itself to the north for new check-in, boarding halls and baggage claim, and the construction of a pier between satellite 'C' and the current maintenance hangar (also on the north side of the main apron, which would be equipped with twenty new boarding bridges.
While waiting to see the timing and results of this Masterplan, at the moment passengers transiting from Malpensa will have to make do with the touch-ups and 'beautifications' that are being made at Terminal 1, where there are many small construction sites scattered here and there especially on the 'arrivals' floor. They are the ones ahead of the Winter Olympics that will be based in Milan next February.
