Does Malpensa have night flights?

Yes — Malpensa operates 24 hours a day and is Italy's busiest cargo airport, so freighters arrive and depart through the night. Between 11:30 PM and 6:30 AM a mandatory preferential configuration puts all takeoffs on runway 17R and all landings on 35L, concentrating night noise on the western runway, and only aircraft meeting at least ICAO Chapter 3 noise standards may operate at night.

Which towns near Malpensa are quietest for aircraft noise?

Samarate and Gallarate, east and northeast of the field, sit off the runway axis and outside the main noise contours. The loudest communities are those on the north–south runway centrelines — Somma Lombardo, Casorate Sempione and Arsago Seprio to the north, Ferno beside the terminal, and Lonate Pozzolo, Castano Primo and Turbigo to the south. Drop a pin on the map above to check any specific address.

What is the CUV at Malpensa?

The CUV (Consorzio Urbanistico Volontario) is a consortium of nine municipalities around the airport — Arsago Seprio, Cardano al Campo, Casorate Sempione, Ferno, Golasecca, Lonate Pozzolo, Samarate, Somma Lombardo and Vizzola Ticino. Led by Somma Lombardo, it has negotiated with SEA and ENAC over noise, flight paths and expansion for more than two decades, including the 2024–25 departure-route redesign.

Why is there so much cargo traffic at Malpensa?

Malpensa is Italy's main cargo airport, with a large freight area on the eastern side of the field near Ferno. Because the airport runs 24 hours, much of the freighter schedule operates overnight — which is why residents under the western runway's night configuration hear heavy aircraft in the small hours, unlike at most Italian airports.

Is a third runway still planned at Malpensa?

Expansion of the airport — including the long-debated third runway and the cargo-city development — has been fought for years because Malpensa sits inside the Parco del Ticino, with protected heathland south of the field near Lonate Pozzolo's Tornavento hamlet. Environmental groups including FAI have campaigned against it; the dispute is ongoing rather than resolved.

How do I report aircraft noise at Malpensa?

Noise around Malpensa is monitored by a network of stations overseen by ARPA Lombardia, with the airport noise commission chaired by ENAC. Environmental and noise reports go to the operator SEA Milan Airports via the environment section of milanairports.com or the SEA switchboard on +39 02 232323.

Does this map include all flights at Malpensa?

Commercial traffic at Malpensa has near-complete ADS-B coverage, so the heatmap and route-density layers reflect actual airline and freighter movements accurately, including night cargo. Light general-aviation traffic from smaller local fields may be under-represented, but it is not a significant noise source compared with MXP's jet traffic.

Milan Malpensa Flight Path Noise Map – Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)

Name: Aircraft noise observations near Milan Malpensa Airport
Creator: Flight Path Noise
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Aircraft noise around Milan Malpensa in October 2026

Loudest neighborhoods near Milan Malpensa: Somma Lombardo, Casorate Sempione, Ferno, Lonate Pozzolo, Vizzola Ticino. Quietest: Samarate, Gallarate. Busiest around 10 AM local time averaging 786 flights/day. Source: Flight Path Noise monitoring data, 30 days to 2026-10-19.

Flights by hour · last 30 days

12a6a12p6p

Average daily traffic

786

flights / day · 23,591 total

Busiest hour

10 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest hour

10 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest residential area

Casorate Sempione

69 dB avg · ~591 flights/day · Busy road

Sits almost on the extended centreline of 17L/35R; its monitoring station records some of the highest noise readings around Malpensa

Does Milan Malpensa Airport have a curfew?

No — Malpensa operates 24 hours a day, including night cargo flights.

Malpensa has no night curfew. Under Italy’s original national night-flight framework (DPR 496/1997 as amended by DPR 476/1999), which closed most civil airports from 11 PM to 6 AM, Malpensa was expressly exempted — along with Rome Fiumicino — as an intercontinental hub. Those decrees were later annulled by the courts (TAR Lazio, 2014, upheld in 2019), so night limits in Italy are now set airport by airport, but the practical position at Malpensa is unchanged — it runs around the clock, and as Italy’s busiest cargo airport it handles freighters through the night. What does apply at night — from 11:30 PM to 6:30 AM a mandatory preferential runway configuration concentrates all takeoffs on runway 17R and all landings on 35L, keeping night traffic on the western runway, and night movements are restricted to aircraft meeting at least ICAO Chapter 3 noise certification. SEA’s noise containment plan proposes tighter limits on louder types after 11 PM, but those remain plan measures, not an enacted curfew.

Milan Malpensa (MXP/LIMC) sits ~40 km northwest of Milan in the Ticino valley, and its noise story is defined by what never applied to it. Italy’s original national night-flight framework closed most civil airports from 11 PM to 6 AM but expressly carved out Malpensa as an intercontinental hub — and since it is also Italy’s busiest cargo airport, freighters run through the night over the Ticino towns. Two parallel north–south runways (both 3,920 m) sit inside the protected Parco del Ticino, sending southbound departures over Lonate Pozzolo, Castano Primo and Turbigo and northern approaches over Somma Lombardo and Casorate Sempione. The nine CUV municipalities have fought SEA and ENAC over noise for more than two decades, and a 2024–25 redesign of the departure routes cut modelled exposure overall while igniting fresh revolts in newly overflown Coarezza and Golasecca — making Malpensa arguably Italy’s most contested airport for aircraft noise.

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Malpensa’s two parallel runways — 17L/35R on the east and 17R/35L on the west, each 3,920 m long and only ~400 m apart — run almost exactly north–south. That close spacing forces segregated rather than fully independent operations, and it means the noise footprint is a tight north–south band: the towns that hurt are the ones on or near the extended centrelines, while communities a few kilometres east or west off-axis get by comparatively lightly.

Area	Aircraft noise	Why
Somma Lombardo	✈︎✈︎✈︎	North of the 17R threshold; approaches and departures both pass over
Casorate Sempione	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Almost on the 17L/35R extended centreline; among the highest readings recorded
Ferno	✈︎✈︎✈︎	On the eastern boundary beside Terminal 1 and the cargo apron
Lonate Pozzolo	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Under 35 arrivals and 17 departures; Tornavento sits beneath the climb-out
Vizzola Ticino	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Closest community to the western night runway
Cardano al Campo	✈︎✈︎	East-northeast of 17L; sideline and turning-departure noise
Arsago Seprio	✈︎✈︎	Northern axis; runway 17 approaches at ~2,000 ft
Coarezza	✈︎✈︎	Newly under the post-2025 westbound departure tracks
Golasecca	✈︎✈︎	Northwest on the Ticino; affected by the new departure routes
Castano Primo	✈︎✈︎	Southern corridor; relieved somewhat by the route redesign
Turbigo	✈︎✈︎	Southern paths at moderate altitude
Samarate	✈︎	East of the field, off the runway axis
Gallarate	✈︎	Northeast and off-corridor; dispersing departures only

The practical rule of thumb — around Malpensa, distance matters far less than bearing. Gallarate at 6 km off-axis is quieter than Castano Primo at 9 km on the southern centreline. If you’re weighing up a house in Somma Lombardo, Casorate Sempione or Lonate Pozzolo, individual streets vary substantially with their offset from the centreline, so drop a pin on the map above and read the report for the exact address.

Flight patterns and runway use

Direction of use follows the wind, but Malpensa’s two dominant configurations are south-flow — depart runway 17, arrive 17 from the north over Somma Lombardo and Casorate Sempione — and north-flow — arrive runway 35 from the south over Lonate Pozzolo and Castano Primo, depart 35 to the north. Noise-abatement departure procedures apply until crossing 4,000 ft, with SID ground tracks designed to thread between the towns rather than over them.

Those ground tracks are the most contested piece of the picture. A formal experiment with redesigned RNAV departure routes began on 18 April 2024, agreed with the nine CUV municipalities and monitored by ARPA Lombardia with extra measurement stations. After a reversion in late 2024, the modified routes became operational on 12 June 2025. SEA/ENAC modelling put the heavily noise-exposed population at 13,347, down from 16,486, with relief for Casorate Sempione and Somma Lombardo in the north and Turbigo and Castano Primo in the south. But the redesign pushed some westbound departures over Coarezza and Golasecca, riverside communities northwest of the field that previously saw little concentrated traffic — their residents’ committees have filed formal complaints and continue to demand a return to the old tracks, so the routes may yet move again.

At night the picture simplifies. From 11:30 PM to 6:30 AM a mandatory preferential configuration puts all takeoffs on 17R and all landings on 35L — everything on the western runway, keeping night noise away from the denser eastern towns but concentrating it on Vizzola Ticino and the Ticino valley corridor. Because Malpensa is Italy’s main cargo airport, that night window carries real traffic: heavy freighters, not just the odd delayed arrival.

When is it quietest?

Malpensa has no curfew, so the daily profile never drops to zero — but it is far from flat:

Overnight (11:30 PM – 6 AM): cargo-dominated. Freighter arrivals and departures on the western-runway night configuration; quieter for towns on the eastern centreline (Casorate Sempione, Cardano al Campo), busier for Vizzola Ticino and the valley.
6 AM – 9 AM: heavy morning bank — intercontinental departures plus the short-haul wave. Peak hours for the northern approach towns in south-flow.
Midday: moderate, sustained traffic.
Late afternoon – evening (4 PM – 9 PM): second peak as long-haul arrivals stack up with evening short-haul rotations.
9 PM – 11:30 PM: tapering, then the switch to the night configuration.

Wind shifts flip which side of the airport carries the approach noise, so a calm morning in Lonate Pozzolo can turn into a busy afternoon when the flow reverses. The pin-drop report on the map above includes an hourly breakdown for your exact spot.

How to check noise at your specific address

The map above answers “how loud is this street?” in three steps:

Search your address or postcode in the bar at the bottom of the map.
Drop a pin — click the location marker that appears.
Read the noise report in the sidebar: average daily noise (Leq), peak observed dB, flights per day passing within 2 km, and an hourly profile that makes the night-cargo pattern visible.

The Noise Heatmap layer (orange/red = louder) shows the tight north–south band along the parallel runways, and the Route Density layer (purple/magenta = busier corridors) makes the post-June-2025 departure tracks — including the contested turn toward Coarezza and Golasecca — easy to see. If your address sits east or west of the centrelines, expect a much quieter report than the headlines about Malpensa noise would suggest; if it sits under one, the hourly breakdown will show you exactly when the traffic comes.

Frequently asked questions

Does Malpensa have night flights?: Yes — Malpensa operates 24 hours a day and is Italy's busiest cargo airport, so freighters arrive and depart through the night. Between 11:30 PM and 6:30 AM a mandatory preferential configuration puts all takeoffs on runway 17R and all landings on 35L, concentrating night noise on the western runway, and only aircraft meeting at least ICAO Chapter 3 noise standards may operate at night.
Which towns near Malpensa are quietest for aircraft noise?: Samarate and Gallarate, east and northeast of the field, sit off the runway axis and outside the main noise contours. The loudest communities are those on the north–south runway centrelines — Somma Lombardo, Casorate Sempione and Arsago Seprio to the north, Ferno beside the terminal, and Lonate Pozzolo, Castano Primo and Turbigo to the south. Drop a pin on the map above to check any specific address.
What changed with Malpensa's departure routes in 2024–2025?: ENAC and SEA trialled redesigned RNAV departure routes from 18 April 2024, agreed with the nine CUV municipalities and monitored by ARPA Lombardia. After a reversion in late 2024, the modified routes became operational on 12 June 2025. Modelling put the heavily noise-exposed population at 13,347, down from 16,486, with relief for Casorate Sempione and Somma Lombardo in the north and Turbigo and Castano Primo in the south — but new overflight of Coarezza and Golasecca to the northwest sparked organised committee opposition that continues.
What is the CUV at Malpensa?: The CUV (Consorzio Urbanistico Volontario) is a consortium of nine municipalities around the airport — Arsago Seprio, Cardano al Campo, Casorate Sempione, Ferno, Golasecca, Lonate Pozzolo, Samarate, Somma Lombardo and Vizzola Ticino. Led by Somma Lombardo, it has negotiated with SEA and ENAC over noise, flight paths and expansion for more than two decades, including the 2024–25 departure-route redesign.
Why is there so much cargo traffic at Malpensa?: Malpensa is Italy's main cargo airport, with a large freight area on the eastern side of the field near Ferno. Because the airport runs 24 hours, much of the freighter schedule operates overnight — which is why residents under the western runway's night configuration hear heavy aircraft in the small hours, unlike at most Italian airports.
Is a third runway still planned at Malpensa?: Expansion of the airport — including the long-debated third runway and the cargo-city development — has been fought for years because Malpensa sits inside the Parco del Ticino, with protected heathland south of the field near Lonate Pozzolo's Tornavento hamlet. Environmental groups including FAI have campaigned against it; the dispute is ongoing rather than resolved.
How do I report aircraft noise at Malpensa?: Noise around Malpensa is monitored by a network of stations overseen by ARPA Lombardia, with the airport noise commission chaired by ENAC. Environmental and noise reports go to the operator SEA Milan Airports via the environment section of milanairports.com or the SEA switchboard on +39 02 232323.
Does this map include all flights at Malpensa?: Commercial traffic at Malpensa has near-complete ADS-B coverage, so the heatmap and route-density layers reflect actual airline and freighter movements accurately, including night cargo. Light general-aviation traffic from smaller local fields may be under-represented, but it is not a significant noise source compared with MXP's jet traffic.

Sources and further reading

Noise — SEA Corporate (Milan Airports) — SEA Milan Airports
Rumore — Aeroporto di Malpensa — ARPA Lombardia
D.P.R. 9 novembre 1999, n. 476 — divieto di voli notturni (modifiche al D.P.R. 496/1997) — Gazzetta Ufficiale
CUV (Consorzio Urbanistico Volontario) — Comune di Somma Lombardo
Il 12 giugno diventeranno operative le modifiche alle rotte di decollo da Milano Malpensa — MalpensaNews
Terza pista a Malpensa, e il Ticino? — FAI — Fondo Ambiente Italiano

Data updated 2026-10-19 — live ADS-B monitoring, rolling 30-day statistics (methodology). Article text revised 2026-07-17.

30 dB	Whisper
45 dB	Quiet residential
55 dB	Normal conversation
65 dB	Busy road
75 dB	Vacuum cleaner
85 dB	Heavy traffic
95 dB	Motorcycle nearby

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Milan Malpensa Flight Path Noise Map – Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)

Aircraft noise around Milan Malpensa in October 2026

Does Milan Malpensa Airport have a curfew?

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Flight patterns and runway use

When is it quietest?

How to check noise at your specific address

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

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