page_title: Milan Malpensa Airport
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Milan Malpensa Airport / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Terminal 1 of Milan-Malpensa Airport Deutsch: Terminal 1 des Flughafens Mailand-Malpensa Italiano: Terminal 1 del Aeroporto di Milano-Malpensa
context_page_description: Milan Malpensa Airport is the largest international airport in the Milan metropolitan area in northern Italy. It serves around 17 million inhabitants in Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria, as well as those living in the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The airport is located 49 kilometres northwest of central Milan, next to the Ticino river. The airport has two terminals and two runways as well as a dedicated cargo terminal.
  In 2019, Malpensa Airport handled 28,846,299 passengers and was the 20th busiest airport in Europe in terms of passengers and 2nd busiest airport in Italy in terms of passengers. Until 2008, Malpensa Airport was a major hub for flag carrier Alitalia. Malpensa Airport remains the second-busiest Italian airport for international passenger traffic, and the busiest for freight and cargo, handling over 500,000 tons of international freight annually.
  The first industrial airport was opened in 1909 near the Cascina Malpensa, an old farm, by Giovanni Agusta and Gianni Caproni to test their aircraft prototypes. This airport was then opened for civil operation in 1948 during the war reconstruction period, in order to serve the northern area of Milan.
caption: Exterior of Terminal 1
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