April 3, 2021 / Emirates Airlines (EK) will recommence its fifth-freedom service connecting Milan Malpensa (MXP) and New York Kennedy (JFK) from June 1. The connection had been interrupted because of the onset of the Covid pandemic in Italy at the beginning of March 2020.

Flights will be on a daily basis, though the Airbus A380 used previously is going to be substituted by a Boeing 777-300ER with 8 seats in First Class, 42 seats in Business Class and 304 seats in Economy. There will be no Premium Economy, as the newest of all Emirates’ cabins, presented a few weeks ago, is featured onboard a limited number of A380s only. From Milan, flight EK205 will depart at 16.10 arriving in New York at 19.00. The return leg will leave the Big Apple at 22.20 to land at Malpensa at 12.15 the following day.

In the pre-Covid era, the Milan-New York sector enjoyed a lot of competition with as many as six airlines serving the route: Alitalia (AZ) used to fly daily from MXP to JFK using an Airbus A330-200, Delta Airlines (DL) used a mix of Boeing 767-300s and Boeing 767-400s daily to JFK, the now defunct Air Italy (IG) used an A330-200 to JFK on a daily basis, American Airlines (AA) mixed B767-300s and B777-200ERs to JFK, Emirates flew the giant A380 to JFK while United Airlines (UA) used a mix of B767-400s and B777-200ERs to serve Newark (EWR).

More than one year later, things are on the move again, on the route, so much to prompt the reopening of the North concourse at Malpensa Terminal 1. The facility, entirely dedicated to extra-UE flights, had been closed in the spring of 2020, because of the slump of traffic figures at the northern Italian hub. Now, a number of carriers have announced their return, including Oman Air (WY) from Muscat (MCT), Saudia (SV) from Jeddah (JED) at the end of March, Delta Airlines from JFK on April 2, United Airlines from Newark on May 8, while American Airlines still has to announce when exactly it is getting back to MXP.(Photo Wikimedia Commons / Trg)