Sea Prime, the private aviation division of the Sea group for the management of the Linate and Malpensa airports, has inaugurated Hangar X at Milan Linate Prime, the 11th hangar which expands the airport to 30 thousand square metres. The new space was inaugurated together with Sirio, the company that provides maintenance services in Europe and fleet management of the subsidiary Flexjet.
Private traffic still above pandemic levels
The growth of the airport is in line with the trend of the private aviation business which, although slowing down, continues to remain above the levels reached before the pandemic: according to data from the sector analysis company, Wing X since the beginning of year (January 1 – May 7, 2023), global private jet and turboprop traffic was down 3% compared to the same period in 2022, but remains above 14% compared to 2019.
The airlines are catching up
After the boom in private aviation during the pandemic which partially replaced that of airlines, the sector is slowly returning to normal although it remains below pre-pandemic levels (about -14%). Exceptions are major airlines such as Ryanair, Southwest, American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines which in the first seven days of May reported 11% more departures than in May 2022 and 6% more than in 2019.
France and the United Kingdom are the main airports
In Europe, private aviation traffic is still 7% higher than before the pandemic: France appears to be the busiest market, even if in the first week of May departures were 8% lower than the same period of May 2022, but are 3% more than in 2019. The UK is the second largest market, although departures in May are down 10% compared to last year, but are still 1% more than to 2019.
With the return to normality of air traffic, the slowdown of private business was expected even though it remained at still high levels. «SEA Prime’s investment follows the double-digit increase in business aviation traffic in 2022, equal to 20% compared to 2021, which continues in the first quarter of 2023 and responds to the growing demand for premium hangar space in Milano Prime ”, commented Chiara Dorigotti, CEO of SEA Prime.