With close to 10 million passengers having passed through Milan Bergamo Airport during the first nine months of 2018 – up 4.6% versus the same period of last year – Italy’s third largest gateway will see a continuation of healthy growth into the winter season, set to be the busiest in the airport’s history. Highlights for this winter include multiple new destinations, with four new routes having already been launched from the airport during the first few days of the season.
Sunday 28 October saw the first batch of winter routes be inaugurated from Milan Bergamo, with Ryanair adding services to Brno in the Czech Republic and Faro in Portugal, both to be flown twice-weekly (Wednesdays and Sundays). The same day also saw the airport’s newest airline partner – Laudamotion – start a daily service to Vienna, marking the first time Milan Bergamo has had a regular service to the Austrian capital. Europe’s largest low-cost carrier (LCC), Ryanair, also introduced flights to Jordan, commencing a three times weekly service to Amman on 30 October. The LCC will also continue domestic flights to Crotone, after launching on 1 June, while for the first time during the winter season it will operate services to Palma de Mallorca, offering a twice-weekly (Thursdays and Sundays) frequency.
“After a record-breaking summer season for the number of passengers passing through the airport, it is great to see many of our airline partners continuing to flourish in winter,” comments Giacomo Cattaneo, Director of Commercial Aviation, SACBO. “Along with the additions of Amman, Brno, Crotone, Faro, Palma de Mallorca and Vienna by Ryanair and Laudamotion for winter, additional capacity will also be provided on many popular routes by other operators.” Expanding further, Cattaneo states just some of the highlights for this winter: “Having recently launched flights to St. Petersburg, our partner Pobeda will add further capacity to its Moscow Vnukovo service this winter, with it becoming twice-daily from 21 December. Pegasus Airlines will increase its frequency to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen from a daily service to a nine times weekly rotation on 10 December, while Wizz Air will add an extra two weekly rotations to its Chisinau service from 18 December, with five weekly flights being offered to the Moldovan capital,” confirms Cattaneo.
On top of these developments, several airlines will also add peak capacity during the Christmas period. Vueling, a new airline for Bergamo, will operate seven return flights to Barcelona between 22 December and 3 January. Albastar will provide five flights to Palermo between 21 December and 16 January, and 12 services to Catania during the same period. During this festive season, Ernest Airlines will also add extra frequencies on its services to Albania and Ukraine, while Blue Panorama Airlines will offer 13 rotations to Reggio between 19 December and 9 January, before returning to the route in summer 2019.
