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Connectivity

Worldwide and European connectivity index

According to the latest available data, in the ranking of the 30 best globally connected airports (selected from a network comprising 3,908 airports worldwide), in 2017 Malpensa again confirmed its 28th positioning reached two years earlier, with a connectivity index of 2.58 which remained unaltered compared to the previous year. As one of the most important airport structural parameters, the index illustrates, starting from a given airport, the average number of flights needed to reach all the other airports in the considered network (worldwide or European). At the European connectivity level (in reference to a sample of 480 continental airports), Malpensa places 25th, gaining 4 positions in the ranking compared to the previous year, with an index of 1.89. Linate also significantly improved its continental accessibility ranking, moving from 111th to 92nd place, with an index reaching 2015 levels (2.18), compared to 3.03 in 2016.

Connectivity and travel times

An indicator which provides a more accurate measure of the level of accessibility to Europe by individual airports is based on the minimum travel times to reach other European airports.

Travel time includes both the flight time and the waiting time at interim airports (in the case in which more than one flight is necessary to reach a particular destination).

For absolute comparison purposes, it is possible to reach 384 European airports in a day with an average connection time of 272 minutes from Amsterdam Airport (the best-connected European airport).

Connectivity indicators and travel times of the Milan airports

 201720162015
MXP LIN MXP LIN MXP LIN
No. European airports connected same day 380 371 387 383 390 387
Average connection time (minutes) 333 359 308 333 312 332

Source: ICCSAI Fact Book

In this ranking, Malpensa Airport is the best-connected Italian airport (22nd in the European ranking) with 380 airports reached same day and average connection times of 333 minutes.

Malpensa surpasses by one position in both national and European rankings the airport of Rome Fiumicino, which connects to 374 airports with an average time of 334 minutes.

Linate airport also reports good connectivity in terms of travel times (fourth in the domestic ranking after Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino and Venice), connected with 371 airports daily, with an average time of 359 minutes.

Day trip

In addition to general European network connectivity, journey times are also of great importance, particularly for airports whose traffic consists predominantly of business customers.

This figure is particularly important for those airports principally serving business customers.

Considering the set of destinations to which it is possible to make a round-trip flight within a day (i.e. a day trip), remaining at the destinations for at least 4 hours, the airports of Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam and Paris lead the rankings with an ability to offer day trips to an average of 150 destinations in a maximum time of around 660 minutes.

European network reachable through a day trip from the Milan airports

 201720162015
MXP LIN MXP LIN MXP LIN
No. European airports connected same day nd 108 184 155 180 150
Average connection time (minutes) nd 737 741 740 744 732
European ranking position nd 15° 15° 13° 19° 12°

Source: ICCSAI Fact Book

In the Milan airport system, Linate takes 15th place in the European ranking (down two from the previous year), with a network of 108 destinations and an average time of 737 minutes, while Malpensa lost its ranking from among the 20 European airports with the best performance.

Accessibility to European GDP

Malpensa is the only Italian airport positioned in the top 20 of the continental ranking based on the share of European GDP that can be reached in a limited time.

The connectivity of destinations according to the travel time is more indicative of quality than connectivity measured exclusively in terms of the number of connections within the continental network.

Malpensa comes 9th in the European ranking (down one place), with 81.9% of European GDP reachable within 2 hours of travel and a further 17.1% in 2 to 4 hours.

Linate Airport is positioned immediately below Malpensa in the national ranking (28th in the European ranking), with 63.9% of European GDP reachable within 2 hours and a further 31.7% in 2 to 4 hours.

% European GDP reachable based on flying time

 201720162015
MXP LIN MXP LIN MXP LIN
% of EU GDP reachable within 2 hours 81.9 63.9 83.5 64.9 78.3 64.8
% of EU GDP reachable within 2-4 hours 17.1 31.7 15.6 30.6 20.9 30.8
European ranking position 28° 25° 11° 25°

Source: ICCSAI Fact Book 2018