It is with great satisfaction that we announce the new service to Hong Kong provided by Cathay Pacific, one of the world's most prestigious airlines. The new service by Cathay Pacific stands as yet another result of the work that SEA has undertaken in recent months with the crucial support of Mayor Moratti and in collaboration with Enac, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the liberalization of bilateral agreements.  

Service to Hong Kong will give northern Italian passengers direct access to a key economic area with high potential and will offer a new link to top destinations in that part of the world such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.

The arrival of Cathay Pacific passenger flights marks another important step in re-establishing Malpensa as a prime destination for direct intercontinental flights and is in addition to the satisfactory results achieved with the recovery seen in Malpensa's traffic. Indeed, in November, Malpensa reported a 2% increase in passenger traffic. The increase runs counter to other large European airports whose traffic during the same period fell dramatically. This makes Malpensa one of the few mid-to-large sized airports in Europe that has seen growth despite the crisis. Positive numbers are coming out of the freight sector as well. Recovering from the negative performance reported in early 2009 (-45% in January), in November Malpensa's monthly traffic trend rose +22.8%.