Summary
- Milan Linate’s strict 1500km radius limitation hinders Air France-KLM’s plans for Milan-Latest York flights with A321neos.
- Straying from its typical model, Air France-KLM would want to vary strategy for long-haul flights to Milan Linate.
- The Airbus A321neo is the one suitable aircraft for the route resulting from Milan Linate’s short runway and distance restrictions.
Air France-KLM desires to launch services between Milan Linate and Latest York, Chief Executive Benjamin Smith said this week in an interview with Corriere della Sera on the sidelines of the Airlines for Europe conference in Brussels. The services could be operated by Airbus A321neos given runway constraints on the Italian airport, but there’s one more obstacle stopping the airline from launching them: Milan Linate’s peculiar flight distance limits.
Unlike other airports where distance limits will not be commonplace, services from Milan Linate must stay inside a 1500km radius. In other words, a service from Milan Linate to Moscow is prohibited, let alone a transatlantic flight to Latest York.
Within the interview, Air France-KLM’s CEO said that when the space restriction has been eliminated, considerations for flights between the 2 cities could change into a reality:
“Once this constraint is removed, we would love to operate the reference to the Airbus A321neo.”
Straying from the important thing hubs
There are several interesting features to this announcement. Before everything, the service can’t be considered Air France-KLM’s typical recent route. The 2 flag carriers that compose this group, namely Air France and KLM, operate primarily from Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol respectively.
The usage of the Airbus A321neo
The ultimate interesting point concerns the choice of the Airbus A321neos to service the route. In December 2021, Air France-KLM signed a firm order for 100 Airbus A320neo family aircraft with options for 60 more, which could be allocated to Transavia and KLM. On the time of the order, it was specified that long-haul routes weren’t envisaged:
“These aircraft will operate medium-haul routes in Europe, notably from Amsterdam-Schiphol – KLM’s global hub and Transavia Netherlands’ most important base, and from Paris-Orly, Transavia France’s most important base.”
Which means Air France-KLM would must either allocate a few of its Airbus A321neos from the present order to those services from Milan Linate or, more probably, increase its order on condition that it has 60 options. Amongst the numerous things that remain unclear is the brand: which airline would operate the services, and as such, what level of service could be offered? Should Transavia offer the flight, we are able to predict a full-economy class cabin layout with limited seat pitch, low prices, and a big majority of additional services being paid. Quite the opposite, the 2 premium airlines would offer a more passenger-friendly offering with more complimentary services and maybe a more generous seat pitch split between an economy and business class cabin.
Note that the Airbus A321neo is the one logical possibility of aircraft that Air France-KLM may have that may fly between Milan Linate and Latest York. Most other aircraft – comprising all widebodies – are each unable to takeoff from Linate’s short runway and legally not allowed to achieve this per regulation.
Photo: Transavia
Replicating La Compagnie?
Nevertheless, a final possibility might be to supply an analogous product to French carrier La Compagnie. The airline operates a fleet of two Airbus A321LRs in a Business Class-only configuration. The airline is most famed for flying between Newark and Paris Orly. Certainly one of its lesser known routes perhaps is that between Newark and Milan Malpensa which was launched in April 2022. These are a number of the longest A321LR routes on the planet.
Faced with the identical restrictions as Air France, La Compagnie was unable to operate from Linate and as an alternative needed to launch flights from Malpensa, further away from the town.
Its aircraft have a complete of 76 seats and costs its seats just below Delta and Air France’s Business Class pricing. Certainly one of the concerns that La Compagnie does face, nonetheless, is its small fleet which makes it more prone to and more impacted by unexpected technical issues.
Should Air France-KLM launch flights from Milan, let alone Milan Linate with its short runway, it could not have the flexibility to vary aircraft at short notice consequently of technical disruptions.
Restrictions at Milan Linate
Milan Linate’s odd 1500km restriction is a component of attempts to shift traffic to the larger and more distant Milan Malpensa airport to the North of the town. It’s a little bit of a journey to get there as compared to Milan Linate which is situated centrally – perfect for business passengers, as an example. Linate is within the vicinity of very populated areas and thus faces constraints in its ability to grow. Along with that, its operation has been limited to a threshold of 18 takeoff and landing operations per hour.
It was only in 2022 that recent regulation got here into force allowing operators at Linate to fly to destinations inside a 1500km radius specializing in point-to-point traffic with exclusively narrow body aircraft. Prior to that, only flights inside the European Union (and London) were allowed. There are not any current plans to review the regulation, meaning Air France’s ambitions may have to put dormant for no less than the near future.