easyJet extends ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ to Milan Malpensa enabling over 24m customers to connect easyJet flights to other airlines’ long haul services

Editor -

  • Customers can connect easyJet flights to other airlines’ long haul flights and to other easyJet flights using the airport’s connection product ViaMilano

  • Airline partners Neos and Norwegian now offer connecting flights from Milan to a number of long haul destinations in Africa, Asia, the USA and the Caribbean

  • One third of all easyJet flights will now be able to connect to airline partner and other easyJet flights

  • New partners and additional connections to be rolled out at other European airports

easyJet has today announced that it is extending its ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ connections platform to Milan Malpensa airport. This means that, combined with the existing connections offered through London Gatwick, one third of the airline’s flights - and over 24 million easyJet customers - will now be able to connect to airline partner long haul services and other easyJet flights in a single booking.

‘Worldwide by easyJet’ is the first global airline connections service by a European low fares airline. It launched in September 2017, enabling customers to connect easyJet flights through London Gatwick to long haul flights, with launch airline partners WestJet and Norwegian.

Now easyJet customers will also be able to seamlessly connect via Milan Malpensa from an easyJet flight to a flight with Norwegian, a flight with new connectivity airline partner Neos or to another easyJet flight, all using the airport’s connections service ViaMilano.

All of this connectivity has been enabled by technology partner Dohop whose innovative platform allows easyJet customers to book connections and forward flights on easyJet.com

With easyJet now enabling passengers to connect through two of its largest bases, the extension to the Malpensa network will open up another profitable market segment for the airline and continue to challenge the efficiency of traditional connectivity models of legacy carriers.

easyJet will sign up other airlines to ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ in early 2018, with talks already far advanced with middle and far-eastern carriers amongst others and the airline also plans to expand to other key easyJet airports in Europe.

‘Worldwide by easyJet’ does not impact easyJet’s punctuality, its asset utilisation or operating model. The airline will not hold flights for connecting passengers. Worldwide by easyJet is subject to a 2 hour 30 minute ‘Minimum Connection Time’, which will give customers plenty of time to transfer between flights and/or terminals. Should a passenger miss a connecting flight they will be transferred to the next available flight.

Andrew Middleton, Ancillary Revenue Director for easyJet, commented:

“We are expanding our ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ network to offer even more connections via another of our largest bases Milan Malpensa, with partners Neos and Norwegian. By doing so we will be able to profitably access a significant market segment of customers across Europe without compromising our operating model and punctuality.

“We continue to broaden our focus to launch more airline partners and add connectivity to more of our biggest airports - between them they have tens of millions of connecting passengers each year whose journeys begin or end in Europe.”

Norwegian Chief Commercial Officer Thomas Ramdahl said:

“Norwegian is delighted to be among the first airlines to join Worldwide by easyJet. We are happy to offer to easyJet passengers in transit in Milan affordable intercontinental connections to Los Angeles. The previous experience in London Gatwick has been a satisfactory one and we are confident it will be the same in Milan Malpensa. With Norwegian’s growing long-haul network and easyJet’s extensive domestic and European ones in Malpensa, there is every reason to expect that this partnership will consolidate in the future, offering to an increasing number of passengers the chance to reach distant destinations comfortably and without additional stopovers".

Aldo Sarnataro, Chief Commercial Officer for Neos said:

"We are very happy to be the first Italian long haul partner of the Worldwide project, and proud to be the first Italian airline operating the B787-9 Dreamliner. It is another important step forward to provide to our customer a wider and better flying experience."