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Lagorio (easyJet): 'Europe holds, slowdowns to Egypt'

The low-cost airline plans to shift capacity to the Old Continent if tensions continue. The carrier's 20 years at Malpensa

by Mara Monti

28 March 2026

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Company reaction to high oil prices
EasyJet 20 years at Milan Malpensa
The unstoppable growth of low-cost carriers

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Between booking changes, redistribution of capacity to European destinations, hedging against high fuel prices and ticket price increases, low cost airlines are trying to weather the Middle East crisis and the impact of jet fuel prices that have almost doubled since the start of the war in the Gulf on 28 February.

The companies' reaction to high oil prices

People are looking ahead to next summer and the effects the conflict will have on tourism: while Europe is holding up, there are slowdowns in bookings not only to the Middle East, but also to destinations not directly involved in the conflict such as Egypt, Turkey and Cyprus. This is confirmed by easyJet, which flies from Milan to Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada Marsa Alam, Cairo Sphinx and from England to Cyprus and Turkey: no cancellations so far (except for Tel Aviv, which will not be operated until the end of the summer), but changes of destinations to European countries such as Spain and Italia. The company is reacting by shifting capacity to Europe to meet demand.

European carriers, unlike American ones, are hedged against the risks of fuel price increases with hedging contracts, but not 100% and not in the long term. In the case of eayJet, according to Bernstein analysts' calculations, hedging is 80% until March and then drops to 62% from March to September 2026. "In the short term we are insured, but we don't know what will happen after that. Fuel price increases will have an inevitable impact on costs,' explains the country manager for Italia, Lorenzo Lagorio, who celebrated 20 years since the opening of the company's Milan Malpensa Terminal 2 base.

What about ticket prices? The cover helps to avoid increases, but it will not be forever if the situation does not improve: 'In a competitive market such as air transport, increases will affect all operators with inevitable repercussions on prices,' explains Lagorio. 'We have to see what will happen in the coming weeks. We hope that fuel prices will go down, but if the increases become structural they will be reflected in the fares'.

EasyJet 20 years in Milan Malpensa

Meanwhile, easyJet is celebrating 20 years of its Milan Malpensa base at Terminal 2, which has become the British group's second most important hub after London Gatwick. The event was attended by institutions including the Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini, the President of the Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana, the Councillor for Mobility of the Municipality of Milan Arianna Censi and the President of ENAC Pierluigi Di Palma and Armando Brunini the CEO of SEA Milan Airports

20 anni di easyJet a Malpensa

I festeggiamenti presso l’hangar di Malpensa di Lufthasnsa Technik

Da sinistra presidente di Enac Pierluigi Di Palma, il country manager per l’Italia di easyJet Lorenzo Lagorio, Attilio Fontana presidente della Regione Lombardia, Arianna Censi, assessore alla mobilità del Comune di Milano, Armando Brunini, ceo di Sea Milan Airports

The first ever easyJet flight took place in 1998 when it first landed at Malpensa from London Stansted. The next step was the opening of the Malpensa base in 2006 just as the dehubbing of Alitalia from the Lombardy airport was taking place. From the first three based aircraft and a hundred or so employees, today the carrier has 22 aircraft of which 10 of the new generation, less polluting Airbus A320neo family, 76 active routes and a capacity of 8.7 million seats available on almost 50 thousand flights a year. It is the first carrier in Milan Malpensa and has opened a training centre here that trains over 8 thousand pilots and flight attendants from all over Europe every year, with nine flight simulators. Overall, the total number of routes operated by the company in Lombardy has risen from 15 in 2006 to 100 today.

The novelty of the last year is the new base at Milan Linate with 5 based aircraft and over 180 employees, confirming its position as the leading carrier in terms of capacity offered at Milan's two airports, Malpensa and Linate, with around 12 million seats available in 2026.

La guerra in Iran e la fine dell’eroina

The unstoppable growth of low-cost carriers

Low cost companies have changed the air transport landscape in Italia and in Europe by becoming the dominant carriers for short and medium-haul destinations: in 2025 they carried 63% of the total passengers in Italia, almost twice as much as the traditional carriers at 37% on a total of 230 million passengers, an unstoppable growth that has made the Italian market the third largest in Europe behind Spain and England.

L’EVOLUZIONE DELLE LOW COST IN ITALIA

This was not the case in 2000 when low cost carriers accounted for 10% of traffic in Europe and in Italia they had 7% of the market of which easyJet and Ryanair just 1%, according to ICCSAI data from the University of Bergamo. Over the years, growth has been constant until they came to dominate the Italia market, partly due to the exit of important companies such as Meridiana and Air One, but above all due to the downsizing of Alitalia, especially at Malpensa where important slots were left free for domestic connections such as Milan-Rome.

The low-cost companies did not stop even in the face of a devastating crisis such as Covid: even before the pandemic, they occupied a 53% market share in Italia, but after the crisis they came out stronger, conquering 68% in 2022, with easyJet and Ryanair occupying more than 54% of the national market, above the European average of 49%.

Now the new crisis in the Middle East is testing the air transport sector again, but as the ceo of Sea Milan Airports, Armando Brunini, commented, 'we have overcome many crises and the air transport system has always come out stronger, we will also face this difficult phase'.