Stucco and paint at Malpensa. But a coat of paint and a few plants won't solve the (many) critical issues at Italy's second airport

In the past few days I left from Malpensa, but this time I went the long way around to get there.

I left the car in GOA, where I will return on August 1. Then I took the bus that took me to the station in Sestri Ponente, from there a local train to Genoa Piazza Principe, then an Intercity that, because of construction, to get to Milan went through Piacenza, and finally the Malpensa Express, just a few days before the ticket increase. Total expense: 46€ and about 4 hours of travel time, But living in Liguria is like that, take it or leave it.

As I arrived, I was able to admire some new features resulting from the many construction sites opened at the airport in the past 18 months.

Work in progress at Malpensa

We have never written about it, but the works were seen in the background of several of our videos. The problem is that it is not structural work, but rather Of aesthetic embellishments, as if Italy's second airport needed a coat of stucco and paint to better accommodate spectators of the upcoming Milan/Cortina Olympics.

Those who expected more seating will have to settle for a canopy. Those who hoped for functioning walkways will have to resign themselves to LED lighting and a few planters. Those who dreamed of a lounge, perhaps run by a company that specializes in this, where they could gobble before takeoff, will be able to fill their eyes (or empty their wallets) in the new boutiques.

 

As a frequent passenger who, over the past 3 years, has departed more than 30 times from this airport (and obviously also returned ed), I think it's safe to say that MXP needed a lot more, not lining the airport's exterior columns or LED spotlights.

Amazing how at Linate, the same company that runs Milan's airports, Has done an egregious job in improving in all respects the stopover, while at Malpensa we were limited to a dusting, like when rust is eating away at your house railing, but you repaint it hoping to hide the evidence.

Constantly stationary walks

Francesca Caporello explained how now in the Airports no longer have walkways, and the reason is simple: if you're on a platform and you can't get off, you won't go into the stores and store.

Too bad this is not the case at Malpensa. Treadmills, located in the air terminal. Are one-way and are systematically always knocked out, forcing passengers to "climb down" by pulling trolleys and backpacks with them.

For example, if vai in the lounge at Monteverdi, assuming I can get in, but then you leave from the opposite side of the airport you have to walk all the way around without any help because on the piers the treadmills only go in the opposite direction, but it's like that throughout the airport.

In every other world port of call there are always two parallel tracks running in both directions, except for small sections.

No new sessions in sterile area

If we took a survey of where the most seats are needed, the arrivals area of an airport would be in last place. Here, at Malpensa they put new seats (I think) only here.

Of course, I could be wrong, but as they are in the process of installing the seats/flower beds in the arrivals area, I didn't see anything pop up in the starting area, let alone the barren area.

Instead, every walkable and passable square meter was rented to the highest bidder, with all kinds of boutiques all the way to the gate area, where pop-up stores keep popping up and where passengers are then forced to sit on the floor.

More and more stores and no new services for the traveler

We saw it at Fiumicino, Better to rent space to those who pay rents, perhaps parameterized to receipts, rather than creating services for passengers.

But at least in the Roman airport there are areas with games for children, something present in every modern airport, an area to work on the computer, and even artwork and exhibitions. At Malpensa there is absolutely none of this.

One example is Louis Vuitton's new boutique. A commercial space literally invented out of thin air, where anything could have been placed: a beautiful lounge serving all passengers, Schengen and non-Schengen, a waiting area or even an area for children and that instead, strong from the fact that all passengers are forced to transit in front of it, it has been transformed into a series of luxury boutiques.

The post immigration area

I have talked in detail about this specific area of the airport in a video. Passed the document check, one arrives at a kind of middle ground. Here, if you don't have access to one of the lounges and don't know your gate yet, you're screwed.

There is a restaurant and then the two roads to the gates. The problem is that there are no sessions (as in the rest of the airport), only two mini bathrooms and the passengers are Forced to find makeshift bedding, or go to one of the two piers where flights leave from, where there are more seats, but also a lot more road to go if you then leave from the opposite side of the airport.

In conclusion

A separate article, on the other hand, would deserve the bathrooms, because they are very few and more like those of the 90s Autogrill, in some "critical" areas they are lacking and force passengers to wander in search of a toilet.

Of course there's the new master plan, the new XL pier is coming in the non-Schengen zone, but all this will happen when the Olympics are a distant memory and in the meantime we passengers have to drag our trolleys and sit on the floor, perhaps with our newly bought Louis Vuitton patalones.