Aviation safety

Aviation safety

Milan airports have an effective Safety Management System (SMS) validated and monitored by ENAC, ensuring the highest levels of aviation safety and quality of service through the maintenance of  flight infrastructure and systems, operating processes and procedures and training of personnel.
Every month, Safety Boards and Safety Committees of Linate and Malpensa consult and review the topics that form the basis of the Safety Management System, ensuring comprehensive and widespread discussion of operational safety issues. The active participation of all airport operators, airlines, institutional bodies and actors of various businesses at the two airports enables a broad consultation and a constructive discussion of the main topics.
To monitor the effectiveness of airport's Safety Management System, SEA uses some quantitative elements related to both Linate and Malpensa. Indicators of the main events at the SEA Group's airports did not reveal any particular problems from the point of view of maintaining adequate aviation safety levels. The percentage of three significant indicators compared to the GSRs (Ground Safety Reports) received is shown below.
In 2016, 749 GSRs were received for Malpensa (641 in 2015), and 633 for Linate (701 in 2015); indicators of the main events at SEA Group's airports did not highlight any particular problems from the point of view of maintaining adequate aviation safety levels, in fact they showed a steady improvement in safety performance.

Malpensa (%)201620152014
Damage to aircraft2.43.95.4
FOD2.33.13.7
Right-of-way violations6.78.77.7



Linate (%)201620152014
Damage to aircraft2.22.33.8
FOD2.21.32.5
Right-of-way-violations7.39.69.3
2.22.33.8

Source: SEA


Wildlife Strike: prevention and monitoring
Prevention and monitoring of wildlife strikes is governed by the "Bird and Wildlife Strike Risk Reduction Plan" and the related Operating Procedure, both included in airport manuals (separate for Linate and Malpensa) and drawn up by SEA as the airport operator, in accordance with ENAC Circular APT 16/2004 and certified by the body itself. They are also periodically subject to audits by the authority and by the internal personnel.
The aspects of specific issue of bird strikes are covered in ENAC Circular APT-01B "Directive on procedures to be followed for the prevention of bird impacts at airports", in line with the provisions of ICAO Annex 14. Both the Plan and the Operating Procedure follow the guidelines of the circular, ensuring a constant monitoring and removal of birds and wildlife from the grounds.
Particular attention is given to the manoeuvring area by using modern equipment available on international market. To support this activity, SEA relies on the company BCI (Bird Control Italy, the leading Italian bird strike prevention company, which carries out its activity in most domestic airports).
All interventions are documented with bird strike monitoring forms and bird strike reporting forms, which are entered in a database managed through a software application called "Bird Strike Management System".
Compared to 2015, bird strike reports are improving, except for Linate where the figure remains stable at an annual rate on 10,000 movements, while the risk indicator (BRI2) is decreasing.

Wildlife strike risk indicators

 LinateMalpensa
 201620152014201620152014
Wildlife Strike (1)3.23.12.70.52.23.2
Wildlife Strike (2)0.170.220.200.080.140.19

(1) Annual rate per 10,000 movements.
(2) BRI2 risk indicator calculated according to the new ENAC Circular APT-01B.
Source: SEA


SEA continues to monitor and manage the issue by implementing systematic prevention and mitigation actions, such as increased deterrence, using products after grass mowing to control invertebrate populations, and a campaign to contain avian species and worms. At Malpensa, the different natural environment, behaviours of hazardous species (pigeons, crows, kestrels, etc.), combined with good management of the vegetation help to limit wildlife's interference with air traffic.