News: New flights from London City to Milan and Rome with Air One
Flights > News > # 1019 (23/10/2006)
Italian carrier Air One is launching new flights from London to Milan and Rome this winter. Air One will offer two flights a day during the week from London City airport to Milan Linate from November 20. There will also be a morning service on Saturdays and an afternoon flight on Sundays.
Air One’s flights from London City to Rome Fiumicino take off on January 8. They will offer a twice-daily service during the week, a morning flight on Saturdays and an evening service on Sundays.
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We would certainly expect Air One's London City to Milan Linate flights to be much more useful to the business traveller than BA Connect's current daily service to Milan Malpensa. This isn't just because of the frequency, but also because Linate is so much closer to the central Milan than Malpensa.
On the other hand, how much demand is there for flights to Rome that isn't already served from Heathrow and other London airports? Milan has always been much more of a business-centric city than Rome, just as the German capital Berlin is a much less important air hub compared to Frankfurt or Munich. Conversely, Air One's usage of Fiumicino airport doesn't give them any advantages over other full service airlines, with Rome being one of the few cities in Europe where the budget airline hub of Ciampino is actually closer to the city centre than the main airport.
Of course, it isn't all about distances - bosses at London City claim that passengers using their airport can typically save one hour in each direction because of a combination of proximity to the city centre, incredibly short taxiing times, and efficient security screening. The problem passengers have then boils down to how efficient the airport is at the other end of the journey. Even if the advantage at Milan seems a lot more clear-cut than it is at Rome, the Italian capital is still another interesting new destination for City airport to serve, with Air One offering the additional advantage of onward connections to a few other cities in Italy, including Brindisi, Crotone and Trapani, as well as the Sicilian islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa, which cannot easily be reached by direct flights on other airlines.
