Story ID: 467MilanoPrime
Milano Prime Sees Strong Start to 2023
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: Milan's Linate airport is the only major gateway on the continent to see an increase in traffic in the first third of the year.
Word Count: 277
Milano Prime, the private aviation manager at Italy’s Milan Linate Airport, has gotten off to a good start in 2023, it said this week at EBACE.
Chiara Dorigotti—CEO of parent company SEA Prime, which operates the general aviation infrastructure at Milan Linate and Malpensa airports—said Linate has been the only major airport in Europe to grow in the first four months of 2023. After finishing 2022 up 20 percent in traffic year-over-year, general aviation traffic is up by 11 percent over the first third of 2022 and 27 percent over the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
The airport benefitted from the recent Milan Design Week exposition, which attracted private aircraft with peaks of 180 daily movements and 80 aircraft sheltering overnight.
SEA Prime recently celebrated the inauguration of its Hangar X, which is dedicated to Flexjet sister company Sirio. It brings the Milano Linate complex to 140,000 sq m (1.5 million sq ft) of dedicated business aviation infrastructure. “The demand for premium hangar space is still very strong,” Dorigotti said. During a press conference on Wednesday at the company’s booth (W78), she noted that the company is considering the addition of one or two more 4,000-sq-m (43,000-sq-ft) hangars at Linate that could be completed in two years.
As well, SEA Prime is pondering the expansion of its terminal at Linate—which is home to four service providers—due to demand from operators seeking private customer lounges. Dorigotti told AIN a decision will come later this year with an eye toward completion in time for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will be hosted in Milan.