KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is to follow its sister carrier Air France and consolidate its route network in the Italian city of Milan at a single airport. The airline currently offers three flights per day to Milan Malpensa and two flights per day to Milan Linate from its Amsterdam Schiphol Airport hub. However, from the start of the Northern Summer schedules it will suspend its flights to Milan Malpensa and will instead focus its activities at Milan Linate doubling the frequency of its flights to four a day.
Air France revised its own strategy in Milan during the summer and from the start of the Northern Winter schedule on October 30, the French national carrier suspended its up to four times daily operation to Malpensa and instead boosted its frequencies at Linate to six flights per day. A seventh daily frequency operated by an A318 is due to be introduced from March 25, 2012.
KLM’s decision will leave low-cost carrier easyJet as the sole operator on the Amsterdam – Milan Malpensa route, while Alitalia and Air One will provide competition to KLM on the Linate route. An estimated 714,000 million O&D passengers travelled between Amsterdam and Milan in the past year with around 54.1 per cent flying to Malpensa and 45.9per cent to Linate. KLM currently has a 25 per cent share of the traffic to Linate, but with the increase in frequencies following the Malpensa route closure, would expect its share of the market to grow to around 40 per cent.
Although these statistics show there is greater passenger traffic on the Milan Malpensa route, thanks in a big part to the high passenger volumes on easyJet’s low-cost service, the yield is significantly weaker. The average one-way fare between Amsterdam and Milan Malpensa is just $102, while tickets on the Milan Linate route average $161 per sector. Looking at KLM’s fares tickets from Linate are on average 20.6 per cent more expensive than at Malpensa.
Related Content
