EasyJet Expands with First Italian Base

A new base at Milan´s Malpensa Airport is to be opened by EasyJet with five new routes. Three Airbus A319s will be based at the airport offering new routes to Gatwick, Athens, Madrid, Malaga and Paris Charles De Gaulle in addition to an existing service to Berlin and daily flights to Dortmund which start on October 30.

The first two of the new aircraft will begin operation from Milan from March 27, 2006. The third aircraft will be introduced in the summer and will provide the capacity to operate more routes.

The no-frills airline expects to carry 1.2 million passengers in the first 12 months and create over 100 jobs for cabin crew and flight deck as well as generate over 1,000 indirect jobs at the airport.

Malpensa will be the airline´s 16th base in Europe and is one of nine Italian airports served by the airline - Cagliari, Milan Malpensa, Milan Linate, Naples, Olbia, Pisa, Rome, Turin and Venice - offering 29 routes and 68 daily flights.

Italy is the fastest growing market in EasyJet´s network in the last 12 months, seeing a 78% increase in capacity.

Chief executive Ray Webster said: “EasyJet believes Italy has excellent opportunities for growth, as air travel is still dominated by inefficient state run airlines, who do not act in the interest of the consumer.