As of January 8, ITA terminates the Milan-New York route. So the airline says goodbye to Malpensa
This year, the Holidays will not be the only thing that Epiphany will take away. From January 8, 2024, in fact, it will disappear from Malpensa [...]
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
MXP
Italy
This year, the Holidays will not be the only thing that Epiphany will take away. From theJanuary 8, 2024, in fact, will disappear from Malpensa the direct Milan-New York flight operated by ITA Airways.
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And with it any trace of the 'national' airline in the Varese airport, since the Milan New York (JFK) was the only route operated to Malpensa by the 'heir' of Alitalia (which instead has a strong presence on the other Milan airport, Linate).
It should be emphasized that ITA Airways and Alitalia are not linked by any corporate ties. But ITA purchased the Alitalia brand and inherited, in October 2021, much of the fleet operated until the day before by Alitalia, effectively replacing it as the 'national airline'.
From this perspective, the stop on the Milan-New York, takes on a significance that we might call historic, since Alitalia had served Malpensa airport continuously since the 1950s. Even during the Covid pandemic, the few flights with AZ initials (another element inherited from ITA) operated out of Malpensa (Terminal 2), after the temporary closure of Linate.
Of course, it must be said that the one between Alitalia and Lombardy's intercontinental airport has been a troubled relationship, even in the decade between 1998 and 2008 in which Malpensa served as the Italian flag carrier's main hub.
Except for that decade, on long-haul flights. Malpensa has always been the second-rate airport for Alitalia. That from the Varese airport served a handful of destinations in North and South America and Asia, first with DC-6s and DC-7s, then with DC-8 jets, and later (in the 1970s and 1980s) with DC-10s and Boeing 747s. At Malpensa, AZ did not operate any feeder flights for its intercontinental flights: the Milan-New York, the Milan-Chicago, the Milan-Boston, the Milan-Tokyo, the Milan-San Paolo (to name a few) were point-to-point flights, with traffic originating exclusively in the Lombard capital (or at any rate in Malpensa's catchment area between Lombardy and Piedmont).
Everything changed starting in 1998. To capitalize on what was spent in the implementation of what was then called the 'Malpensa 2000', the government decided that Alitalia would move the focus of its operations there, its main hub, Severely restricting traffic to and from Linate so that the city airport would not take traffic away from its big brother.
The 'historic' date was Oct. 27 (which also happens to be the day of Poodle's birthday): great chaos in baggage handling, but then things began to turn around. It was, however, a matter of a one-man move: Alitalia had brought only the planes to Malpensa, while the crew and maintenance base of operations remained in Rome. So that Every day, hundreds and hundreds of pilots, hostesses and stewards shuttled from Rome before taking up duty in Milan. In fact, flights between Fiumicino and Malpensa were shuttles filled mostly by Alitalia personnel.
The thing, evidently ill-digested (or not digested at all) by Alitalia employees and unions (but perhaps also by the top management of the winged bandwagon) went on grudgingly for a decade round and round. That saw, among other things, Failure of the agreement between Alitalia itself and the Dutch KLM (who would then choose Air France as a partner), which would probably have 'armored' Malpensa's role as a hub.
Instead, In October 2008, the national airline did arms and baggage by returning to Fiumicino. Local administrators and associations of productive categories in northern Italy made fire and brimstone. But, to be fair, perhaps, that of 'Malpensa hub of Alitalia' was always and only a stretch, since, due to its geographical location and attractiveness, Rome was and is the natural 'home' for a company that wants to operate according to the 'hub and spoke' model.
Alitalia, though, did not leave Malpensa altogether.: maintained, at least at first, a few connections to Rome, as well as two intercontinental flights: the one for New York JFK e the one for Tokyo Narita, historically crowded with Japanese tourists drawn to the Lombard capital by fashion and luxury. The two 'year round' flights would be joined for a few years in the winter months by the a few weekly frequencies to the Maldives.
The latter and the Tokyo ended in forty-eight cards with the Covid epidemic which only the Milan-New York survived, albeit maimed (four or five weekly frequencies), Casa Alitalia also never reopened and now Is an independent lounge operated by SEA.
That as of next January 8, he too will pass into the history books, 'victim' of accounts in continuous loss on a very 'crowded' route, on which ITA Airways still chose not to invest, operating it with the old A330-200 even when (since last spring) he began to receive the assai More modern, comfortable and attractive A330-900s. As you can see the flights are no longer on sale after January 7.
