Is SQ ready to fly from Milan to New York?

[Kyo]

Well, I definitely don't see SIN-MXP-JFK-FRA-JFK-MXP-SIN happening...

Still not convinced SIN-MXP-JFK happens for the foreseeable future. Hope it does, though!

[LukeGT]

Politicians and Malpensa supporters are desperately trying to increase the traffic and the number of flights after the Alitalia withdrawal. After this event, the airport was basically dehubbed and both politicians and directors tried to stop in any way the decrease of passengers.

While I personally think that not having Alitalia as main carrier anymore was a wonderful event (they never were so fond of MXP, and they never decided to focus their ops at MXP), I perfectly understand the though situation the airport was/is living, because it was/is an important resource for the area and it provides a number of jobplaces.

From a certain point of view things went not so bad, since Malpensa was able to attract Easyjet which strongly operates in and out. But from a "hub" perspective the situation remains difficult. This is the major issue about the airport.

When LHI started its ops in MXP there were great announcements about the possibility of new longhaul flights operated by LHI in the near future. The experience and the history tell us a different story. After 18 months, LHI has not started any longhaul flight and - in an official statement - a spokeman by LHI said that, as of today, there's no a serious plan about this matter.

2 years ago, it was said Air India could have used MXP as mid-point for a India-US flight, as well as Jet Airways. I never saw this happening. Ok, it's true, there was the crisis and the global slowdown so probably the aviation market suffered external shock, but still we live in THIS world, not in the dreams world.

Politicians and supporters love to talk about a so brilliant and exciting catchment area and they are ready to compare MXP to FRA or CDG. Honestly, I prefer to be a little bit more serious and I dare to say probably ZRH and MUC could be a better comparison. But if they are very similar (since none has a serious ethnic traffic like MAD or LIS), ZHR and MUC have a main carrier which use them as hub with lots of connecting/feedering flights: this is basically the first step to create an hub. Nonetheless, MUC has its own issues with longhaul flights, since it's not so easy to start a serious longhaul activity even if you have a home carrier available (it's a general consensus LH is a great airline for what it's about hub development strategy!).

Which is the home carrier at Malpensa? Easyjet, which is a LCC? or Emirates with 2 /3 flights? or is LHI, whose effort is praiseworthy but still not enough to be considered an home carrier?
Politicians and supporters point the finger against bilateral agreements... is this for real the issue? I don't think so. In some cases, it is, but in example it cannot for North american operations.
Air Canada and United are still missing at MXP, US airways cancelled MXP as int'l destination, and still we don't have flights to west coast. This has nothing to do with bilaterals.
After 12 years, Malpensa main terminal is not completed, yet.... (Fatevi una domanda, datevi una risposta!) ... access to the airport (train, shuttle and so on) has to be improved significantly, yet.
Yes - it's true - we gained CX operation @ MXP, that's great but is this a resolving event? IMHO, it's not a limited bunch of flights operated by overseas carriers to solve the real issues MXP is facing.

I'm not saying that statement is a lie, I'm only saying that probably the source is not so reliable. My personal comment is that SQ needs to find the traffic by itself for the MXP-JFK, since a early morning departure from MXP limits seriously the figures about connecting pax (as the morning FRA dep). Furthermore neither JFK nor EWR are route which need additional capacity from MXP (I think AZ, CO, AA, and DL are currently operating the route).

Anyway it will be interesting to see what happens.

[B727]

I remember a couple of years ago himself stating SQ was going to takeover Alitalia

Macche pazzo!

[LukeGT]

I would use different words to describe this man

[MSPeconomist]

I'm frankly having a hard time seeing how this could work out well for SQ. Malpensa is an airport that doesn't work very well, even though it is an improvement over most other airports in Italy. It tends to get fogged in, so that delays and cancellations are common. Ground handling has problems--again, common in Italy--and Italy is subject to many strikes and other labor actions.

Connections to/from the hypothetical flight would largely depend on LHI and would thus be limited. AZ has a totally different corporate culture and is best avoided. Thus, SQ would need to rely heavily on Milan-area O & D traffic, especially for premium fare passengers who demand high standards for airport handling and connecting carriers. While many would be pleased to avoid AZ (and also some of the US carriers such as DL), they're probably not accustomed to doing a large share of their flying on SQ or other high-quality Asian carriers. I don't think the MXP-JFK or MXP-EWR route has been highly profitable for other carriers.

[LukeGT]

I'm frankly having a hard time seeing how this could work out well for SQ. Malpensa is an airport that doesn't work very well, even though it is an improvement over most other airports in Italy. It tends to get fogged in, so that delays and cancellations are common.

Sorry, I'm not a Malpensa fan, but it's not so foggy. LIN is definitely worse.
Cancellations because of fog are not so common.

Ground handling has problems--again, common in Italy--and Italy is subject to many strikes and other labor actions.

true.

[MSPeconomist]

Maybe I've had bad weather experiences at both Milan airports. However, why try to connect here when MUC, FRA, AMS, ZRH, etc. are so much better?

[LukeGT]

Maybe I've had bad weather experiences at both Milan airports. However, why try to connect here when MUC, FRA, AMS, ZRH, etc. are so much better?

MSPeconomist, I fully agree with you on everything else you wrote.
MXP currently isn't a real hub. Something like a key airport, even though it's very far from the city.

I can't see the profitability for a similar flight.
I live in Milan but I usually try to avoid MXP if I can. Nonetheless because of the "perimeter law" about LIN, if you want to connect in MUC you *must* leave from MXP.

[Mitch]

MSPeconomist, I fully agree with you on everything else you wrote.
MXP currently isn't a real hub. Something like a key airport

that's true

[...]even though it's very far from the city.
I can't see the profitability for a similar flight.
I live in Milan but I usually try to avoid MXP if I can. Nonetheless because of the "perimeter law" about LIN, if you want to connect in MUC you *must* leave from MXP.

I don't think that MXP is so far away from the city....30/35 mins of train from Cadorna (Milan city center) and in December from Garibaldi (32-38 mins) and Central Station (41-47 mins) (so from Malpensa there will be a train every 15') for 50kms

Bus Line 73 from Linate to San Babila takes 22/30 mins for 7kms

SIA has a fantastic product, so I'm sure this flight will be the first choice for lot of people, and if it departs/arrive not so early, would get also a transit component from LHI

[LukeGT]

I don't think that MXP is so far away from the city....30/35 mins of train from Cadorna (Milan city center) and in December from Garibaldi (32-38 mins) and Central Station (41-47 mins) (so from Malpensa there will be a train every 15') for 50kms

Bus Line 73 from Linate to San Babila takes 22/30 mins for 7kms

Sorry for being very class-conscious but a taxi ride to LIN is 12 EUR, the same to MXP is 85 EUR.
Train to MXP is 11 EUR, running every 30 mins (currently). Bus to LIN is 1 EUR, running every 8-11 minutes.

Please, at least on this site, I ask to the italian members to AVOID any discussion about MXP and LIN comparison. This is not an italian site and everyone can judge by himselg/herself about airports accessibility. We don't need another totally unnecessary discussion about this ancient matter.

SIA has a fantastic product, so I'm sure this flight will be the first choice for lot of people, and if it departs/arrive not so early, would get also a transit component from LHI

None here is complaining about service (ehi, this is a forum dedicated to SQ! ). But the departure time for the flight from MXP would be 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning (SQ cannot oblige people travelling from SIN to NYC to stop at MXP too much) which is basically too early for most (maybe all) LHI incoming flights. As previously said, a re-timing for the flight is not so easy.
Furthermore, please have a look at the loads on the FRA-JFK flight... I really can't think of a better load from MXP.

Finally, I'm still waiting for an official statement from SQ.

[SQMilan]

Let's see if SQ will open this flight...