Malpensa as a global gateway to Milan and Lombardy
Milan Malpensa is at the centre of the international story of Milan and Lombardy. This is the picture that emerged during the conference "Malpensa, gateway to Italy - Milan and Lombardy seen from the world", hosted at the airport and dedicated to the role of the airport in the global projection of the territory.
The meeting brought together representatives of institutions, aviation and the Lombard economic system, including the President of SEA Milan Airports Michaela Castelli, the ENAC Extraordinary Commissioner Carlo Mearelli, the CEO of SEA Milan Airports Armando Brunini, the Head of Cabinet of the Mayor of Milan Filippo Barberis and the President of the Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana.
At the center of the discussion, Malpensa's ability to function not only as an airport infrastructure, but as an international gateway to Milan and Lombardy, connecting the territory to global flows of tourism, business, events and mobility.
The results of SocialCom's research were presented to support the debate, which analyzed online and social conversations dedicated to Lombardy, Milan and Malpensa between September 2025 and August 2026.
The study identifies three main axes:
- Lombardy as a territorial and productive system,
- Milan as a driver of international visibility
- Milan Malpensa (MXP) as a strategic access infrastructure.
As for the airport, the research reveals 361 thousand international conversations and 4.6 million social interactions, with interest growing by 3% in the last six months and a positive sentiment of 84%. The United States is the first market in terms of volume of conversations, flanked by a significant presence of Asian countries such as Thailand, Japan and South Korea.
In the panel analyzed, Malpensa emerges as the first transport infrastructure associated with the global narrative of Lombardy, confirming its weight not only on an operational level, but also on a reputational and tourist level.
The figure is part of a broader context. Lombardy generated 17.3 million international conversations and 1.1 billion interactions, with a positive sentiment of 80%, while Milan collected 15 million conversations and 1 billion interactions, with interest growing by 7% and positive sentiment by 82%.
Milano Cortina 2026 also contributed to further strengthening the visibility of the territory, which between January and August generated 46 million conversations, 1.6 billion social interactions and 36 billion video views.
The picture that emerges is therefore that of a system in which Malpensa, Milan and Lombardy operate in a complementary way: MXP guarantees international accessibility, Milan feeds the attractiveness and the region expands the narrative towards tourism with the cities of art in Lombardy and the Lakes, economy, events and territories.
