A few days before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Malpensa Airport has posted a surge in passenger traffic, having already welcomed some 1,400 travellers.
There are 77 delegations at the Games
These included athletes and technical staff, with 2,800 pieces of hold luggage, 1,400 items of sports equipment and 1,600 oversized items of luggage (including hockey sticks, boots, skates, bicycles and crates containing food and medicines). There are 77 delegations represented at the Games, with the largest groups from the United States (350), Korea (100), Japan (50) and Finland (50).
53 heads of state will attend the event
Added to these numbers are the 4,600 journalists, media operators and representatives of the Olympic Committees, with 7,200 pieces of luggage, and the 200 VIP guests of the Olympic family, sponsors and 53 heads of state and government, who complete the flow of international arrivals.
200 volunteers provide support
The recently refurbished Terminal 1 has been equipped to handle the high influx of passengers and the handling of special materials. 200 SEA volunteers have been called in to support operations on a daily basis Alongside the airport’s operational staff, to welcome athletes and assist their teams. To ensure efficiency and speed of operations, 300 special trolleys are being used to transport sports equipment and technical materials.
A 24-hour Action Room monitors flows
Milan Malpensa is not only a point of arrival, but also the first point of contact with Italy for athletes and delegations: official passes are collected at the airport, equipment checks are carried out and logistics are coordinated for transfer to the Olympic villages and competition venues. The coordination is entrusted to the Action Room, a 24-hour, logistics operations centre where SEA staff, official supporter of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, work closely with the Milan Cortina 2026 Foundation. Here arrival flows are monitored and analyzed in order to plan all operations, integrating information on air traffic, transport and security, ensuring efficiency and speed in the movement of people and materials.
Telling the emotional stories behind the Games
Milan Malpensa is also becoming a communications hub for the Games thanks to the MXP Media Lab, a SEA project in collaboration with IULM University and Unimi. This involves a dedicated team of nine students who are providing support to SEA's communications department in the production of editorial content (photographs and videos) that tells the story of the happenings and the emotions associated with Milan Cortina 2026.
