Milan Bergamo records double-digit growth in first half of 2023

Milan Bergamo Airport has witnessed more than 7.6 million passengers pass through its doors already this year, recording an impressive double-digit growth when compared to the same period in both 2022 (31%) and pre-covid 2019 (18%).

Welcoming over one million passengers every month, 2023 seems set to beat 2019 as the most successful year in the airport’s history. 22 carriers operate from the airport in S23, including the welcome addition of three new airline partners – Georgian Airways (Tbilisi), flydubai (Dubai), and Norwegian Air Shuttle (Bergen and Oslo).

2023 has seen the launch of 19 new routes from the Italian airport, adding to the gateway’s network. In addition to the new carriers’ inaugural flights, Milan Bergamo established links to Comiso, Catania, Heraklion, Karpathos, Lampedusa, Mykonos, and Zakynthos with Aeroitalia; Nantes and Oviedo with Volotea; and Belfast, Brno, Cluj, Iasi, Lublin, and Rijeka with Ryanair.

Securing its place as Italy’s number one airport for seat capacity and number of destinations served (nine) in Poland, the central European country has now surpassed Germany as Milan Bergamo’s fifth biggest country market. While Turkey looks set to overtake Morocco as the airport’s second-largest non-EU country market (after UK), recording an exceptional 108% growth in comparison to the first half of last year.

Owing to the ever-expanding route network from the airport, Milan Bergamo has seen robust growth in several country markets. With new routes to Paris Charles de Gaulle (easyJet), Nantes (Volotea), and Toulouse (Ryanair), the French market has experienced a 30% growth since S22, a remarkable 163% increase from 2019. Other markets witnessing a significant increase in traffic are Portugal (78% vs 2019 / 51% vs 2022), Netherlands (104% vs 2019 / 30% vs 2022), and Albania (100% vs 2019 / 39% vs 2022).

“With 2023 already proving to be a record-breaking year for us in terms of passenger numbers, the current trend leads us to expect to see Milan Bergamo exceed 15 million passengers this year for the first time in our history,” states Giacomo Cattaneo, Director of Commercial Aviation, SACBO. “We have expanded our fantastic offering of routes available to our customers this summer and have no doubt that our positive traffic growth trend is set to continue.”

Since the beginning of the year, Milan Bergamo has handled nearly 50,000 passenger flights, with June alone recording 9,043 flights, a solid 10 % more than June 2019 (12% vs 2022).

In line with traffic growth, the airport continues infrastructure development to ensure Milan Bergamo can meet growing demand. This year has seen the completion of a new custom clearance in the North Apron alongside road accessibility to the Logistic Park. The Italian gateway is also opening ‘P1 east’ – an additional short-term parking area, while construction has begun on the tunnel linking the airport terminal to the future station which will serve an important direct rail connection to Milan Centrale Station.