On February 21, 2023, Anama, the association of air freight agents, issued a statement criticizing the inefficiency at Malpensa's CargoCity and has called for a 48-hour suspension of operations by the two main ground handling operators to clear the backlog of goods in the warehouses. Despite efforts to return to normalcy post-Covid, Milan Malpensa Airport has experienced a negative performance trend since the second quarter of 2023, primarily due to service issues at the warehouses of Milan Malpensa’s two main airport handlers, Alha and Mle-Bcube, resulting in extended cargo handling times and delays in deliveries to end customers.
Alessandro Albertini, the president of Anama, stated, "The cargo sector crisis at Malpensa results from a lack of strategic planning at the national level for air transport, years of neglected investments and maintenance in Cargo City, which only resumed two years ago, and poor service quality—a longstanding issue Anama has highlighted with little tangible response. The situation at Malpensa has been exacerbated by continuous strikes by warehouse staff at Alha and Mle, prompting serious reflection and the need for a structural solution. Without it, the airport cannot recover. We have proposed an immediate emergency intervention plan to restore operations at the country’s leading cargo airport, suggesting a halt to air cargo operations until the backlog is cleared and/or a suspension of Alha and Mle handlers.”
Anama conducted a survey among a sample of freight forwarders, revealing that "in November 2023 and again in January 2024, approximately 80% of import shipments arriving at Milan Malpensa were processed in times 50% longer than the service level agreement, which sets cargo handling times at six hours for Bup flights, 9.5 hours for passenger flights, and eighteen hours for cargo flights, with an out-of-standard operations limit of 8%.” This occurs at an airport that handles 61.8% of the national cargo volumes, according to Fedespedi.
Besides the 48-hour halt of Alha and Mle's activities, Anama demands "the redirection of some air carriers to other handlers for at least a year to redistribute incoming traffic and restore normal operations" and "the relocation of some air cargo carriers to other national airports.” Furthermore, Albertini believes it is necessary to establish a roundtable with all sector operators and the Ministry of Transport to "define new business models with clear and above all transparent rules for the market to safeguard the competitiveness of Made in Italy, employment, and the air transport supply chain.”
After this statement, Mle declared that "there is no emergency situation in the Malpensa cargo airport that requires the application of the extraordinary measures invoked by Anama".
