Lufthansa on Monday signed a strategic partnership agreement with Milan's Malpensa airport that will see the German airline increase its European flights to and from the northern Italian airport.
Details of the agreement are still under wraps, but SEA, the company that runs Malpensa, said that ''in the first instance'' the plan involves the acquisition of six new aircraft by the start of next year which will be operated by Lufthansa's Italian subsidiary, Air Dolomiti.
''Milan and the Lombardy region are among the strongest and most important markets in Europe and have an elevated volume of passengers. By reinforcing our flights, we will be in a position to offer our Italian clients a wider network of routes to interesting European destinations in the future,'' said Lufthansa Services Vice President Karl Ulrich Garnadt.
The German carrier already offers 372 flights a week to and from Milan's Malpensa and Linate airports, including 186 in partnership with Italian airline Air One.
SEA president Giuseppe Bonomi said the Lufthansa agreement would help put the airport back on track after ailing national carrier Alitalia cut more than half of its Malpensa traffic in March in order to reduce its losses there, said to be some 200 million euros a year.
''The agreement shows what we have known for a while now: that for Malpensa Alitalia represents the past, while the future is with those who believe in the development of the airport,'' Bonomi said.
Milan mayor Letizia Moratti welcomed the news as a ''new phase'' that would confirm Malpensa's role as a large European hub in coming years.
''The alliance gives concrete prospects for the development of Malpensa, which can look towards the future with confidence - independently of the fate of Alitalia,'' she said.
In March Alitalia give up its slots for most intercontinental flights in and out of Malpensa and slashed domestic flights to and from the airport.
The decision was based on Alitalia's 'survival' plan aimed at making the airline more attractive for privatization and concentrating the airline's services at Rome's Fiumicino airport.
SEA responded by filing a suit against the national carrier seeking 1.25 billion euros in damages for allegedly breaching their 2002 partnership agreement to make Malpensa Italy's second air transport hub after Rome.
SEA snubbed an offer made by Irish low-cost airline Ryanair in September to invest some $1 billion in Malpensa and Linate.
The offer would have allowed the budget airline to add 80 routes from the two airports and involved the acquisition of 18 new B737 aircraft by 2012.
When Ryanair announced its offer, an airline spokesman said Malpensa ''has never achieved its full potential because it has always bet on the wrong horse: Alitalia''.
The Irish airline said its offer had been rejected because SEA was reluctant to turn Malpensa into a low-cost hub.
