Air France is to focus its strategy in the Italian city of Milan on just the one airport having recently offered flights to both Linate and Malpensa from its Paris Charles De Gaulle hub. From the start of the Northern Winter schedule on October 30, the French national carrier will suspend its up to four times daily operation to Milan Malpensa and will instead focus its activities at Milan Linate, where frequencies will double from up to three flights to up to six flights per day. A seventh daily frequency operated by an A318 will be introduced from March 25, 2012.
Its decision will leave low-cost carrier easyJet as the sole carrier on the Paris CDG – Milan Malpensa over the winter months - Lufthansa Italia also provides up to two flights per day on the route but the Italian division of the German flag carrier is to close at the end of the summer schedule.
easyJet currently offers a twice daily schedule on the route, also serving Milan Linate from Paris Orly with a daily rotation. Air France’s partner Alitalia also offers flights between Paris CDG and Milan Linate with up to four daily services.
An estimated 1.3 million O&D passengers travelled between Paris CDG and Milan in the past year with around 63.7 per cent flying to Malpensa and 36.3 per cent to Linate. Air France currently has a 22 per cent share of the traffic to Linate, but with the increase in frequencies following the Malpensa route closure, would expect its share of the market to grow to around 40 per cent.
Although these statistics show there is greater passenger traffic on the Milan Malpensa route, thanks in a big part to the high passenger volumes on easyJets’s low-cost service, the yield is significantly weaker. Air France’s average one-way fare between Paris CDG and Milan Malpensa is just $98, while tickets on the Milan Linate route average $274 per sector, a considerable difference.
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