SEA Milan Airports, operator of Malpensa and Linate airports, has reported a 15.4% increase in non-aviation revenues for 2024, while its passenger traffic grew by 11.5%.
Retail revenues
The airport’s commercial offerings (shops and restaurants) reported a record turnover of €432m (US$480m) in 2024, representing an increase of 15.4% compared to 2023. Furthermore, the average spend per passenger reached €11 (US$12), up 3.4% year-over-year.
According to the airport, sales in shops rose by 15.3%, with spending per passenger up by 3,1%, and the food and beverage (F&B) segment’s performance was especially strong with a sales increase of 16.6% and average spend per passenger up 4.5%.
A standout performance was reported in airside revenues at Malpensa Airport, where sales increased by 17.5%, including duty-free and specialty retail, and average passenger spending grew by 5.6%. In particular, Terminal 1 luxury shops achieved a revenue increase of 13.9% and spend per passenger rose by 14.9%, a trend driven by the return and expansion of intercontinental traffic, especially from Asia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and North America.
Driving passenger traffic
The airport system recorded an 11.5% increase in passenger traffic in 2024 compared to the previous year, with an all-time record of 39.3 million passengers for the year. Malpensa accounted for 28.7 million of these passengers.
Long-haul traffic at Milan airports grew by 17%, driven by the return of pre-pandemic routes and the launch of new connections, particularly to Asia. Examples of these added airline offerings include Thai Airways (Bangkok), Hainan Airlines (Chongqing, Guiyang), Turkmenistan Airlines (Ashgabat), Air China (Chengdu), China Eastern (Xi’an), and ANA (Tokyo Haneda) – marking Japan’s first direct link with Milan by a Japanese carrier in 14 years. Maldivian airline BeOnd introduced an all-business-class service to Malé, and Vietnam Airlines will launch the first direct Milan–Hanoi route in summer 2025. 
North American connectivity remained strong, with around 70 weekly flights by seven carriers, as well as services from Air Azores via Ponta Delgada. Delta and Air Canada are projected to boost capacity in the winter and the summer of 2025 is expected to bring new routes to Boston (Delta) and Philadelphia (American Airlines).
Additional developments include flights by Air Bulgaria (Sofia), Sun Express (Antalya), Transavia France (Paris Orly), Nesma Airlines (Cairo), and increased frequencies from LATAM Airlines (São Paulo), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong), Delta (Atlanta), Air India (Delhi), Etihad (Abu Dhabi), and Gulf Air (Bahrain and Geneva).
In the low-cost segment, easyJet added routes to Las Palmas, Toulouse, and Salerno, with winter services to Oslo, Pristina, Tromsø, Kittilä, Sphinx (Cairo West) and Rabat. Wizz Air expanded to Paris Beauvais, Tenerife, Warsaw, Larnaca, Malaga, Valencia, Bucharest, Rzeszow, and Gdansk. Ryanair strengthened its Malpensa base with new routes to Athens, Marrakech, Budapest, Tallinn, Paris Beauvais, and, for winter 2025, Krakow, Rzeszow, Fuerteventura and Reggio Calabria.
At Linate, extended weekend slot availability enabled new routes from Vueling (Barcelona), Aeroitalia (Rome, Perugia, Comiso), Sky Alps (Ancona), and ITA Airways (Malta). Following the EU-mandated release of 15 daily slot pairs tied to Lufthansa’s acquisition of ITA Airways, easyJet was selected as the remedy taker and will launch new flights to Frankfurt, Brussels and Vienna and additional UK/EU destinations from summer 2025. New routes to Düsseldorf and Hamburg are also planned from Malpensa.
In related news, Milan Malpensa Airport recently opened the Bike Corner at Terminal 2 arrivals. The cycle space is open 24/7 and completely free of charge. Click here to read the full story