Two UK consultancy firms are compiling a dossier on transport links at Milan Malpensa Airport to help determine whether most of the flights remaining at the city's Linate Airport should be transferred to the new hub on 31 October, as planned.
The European Commission-appointed companies - London-based Alan Stratford and Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick of Basingstoke - have sent a joint team to Italy to make an assessment and report back to Brussels this week.
The EC will study the report and decide about the transfer later this month.
It is understood that one company will concentrate on evaluating the readiness of the airport's infrastructure. The other will consider the status of road and rail transport links.
The decision will ultimately hinge on whether both elements are sufficiently developed to allow the 34% of Milan flights that European Union carriers have been allowed to retain at Linate to be transferred without causing severe disruption.
The EC has asked Rome to provide full support to the advisors to allow them to deliver their assessment, but Italian flag carrier Alitalia has unilaterally contracted its own team of US-based consultants to submit what it terms "an independent review". Milan-Rome flights - operated solely by Italian carriers - will be allowed to remain at Linate even after the transfer, a distinction other airlines say favours Alitalia.
There are also concerns over whether Malpensa will be sufficiently complete by November to accommodate the required increase from 58 to 70 hourly movements, although slot co-ordinator Assoclearance says that even then the airport will draw on only 68% of its peak capacity.
Source: Flight International
