September 17, 2026 Announcement on the Caselle-Malpensa Merger
On 17 September 2026, during an event at Malpensa airport, Armando Brunini, chief executive of Sea (the company that manages the Milan airports of Linate and Malpensa), set a deadline for the first time for the dossier on the integration between the Milan airport system and Turin's Caselle airport, run by Sagat. According to Brunini, «our conclusions will be ready by October, and we will then hand them over to the shareholders for their assessment».[1]
Timeline of the dossier
The announcement pushes the timetable back by a few weeks compared with the first hypotheses circulating in August, when the feasibility study, only just launched, had seemed set to reach the shareholders as early as September. Brunini specified that the work is still underway: Sea's task is to assess the synergies and industrial merit of the proposed merger, an analysis that still requires a few more weeks.[1]
The integration plan
The project aims to merge Sea and Sagat, creating a single airport system for the North West. The linchpin of the operation is 2i Aeroporti, controlled by F2i and Asterion, which owns 100% of Sagat and is at the same time Sea's second-largest shareholder with roughly 45%. The City of Milan currently controls 54.8% of Sea and, according to reports from Radiocor, would retain a majority stake in the new entity as well, with a share of around 51%.[1]
The most delicate issue in the operation concerns governance, especially on the political level: Milan has set keeping public control as a condition, while Turin has not held a stake in Sagat for years. On the industrial side, the plan aims to make the three airports complementary: Malpensa would keep its role as an intercontinental gateway, Linate would remain the city airport for European and business travel, while Caselle would strengthen its function as a regional airport, including through the development of low-cost carriers.[1]
Turin's position
In the days before the announcement, Andrea Andorno, chief executive of Sagat, had expressed openness to the project, telling La Stampa that «a consolidation deal can only be positive for all the parties involved», and pointing to the positive results achieved by other integrated airport systems in Italy and Europe. Andorno had however noted that he did not yet have further details on the dossier.[1]
Any such integration is not expected to call into question Caselle's development plan: Enac has given final approval to the Master Plan through 2032, which envisages €114 million in investments to increase the Turin airport's capacity, flexibility and efficiency—a path that would remain confirmed even within a larger airport system.[1]
Related articles: Aeroporto di Torino-Caselle, Malpensa Airport, Sagat, Sea
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Sources
- La Stampa — 17 September 2026