Ryanair unveiled its largest-ever Winter 2026 schedule for Milan on October 1, 2026, adding two Bergamo-based Boeing 737s and pushing the Lombardy operation to 33 aircraft. The Irish low-cost carrier said the winter program will offer 8.7 million seats, up 11 percent, across Bergamo and Malpensa as it targets 21 million annual passengers in the Milan catchment.
Malpensa leads the growth. Ryanair is adding more than 640,000 seats there this winter, a 27 percent increase, and will fly 125 routes in total from the two Milan airports, including ten new winter services. Six of those new routes leave from Malpensa and four from Bergamo. The airline listed Liverpool, Paphos, Rabat, Reggio Calabria, Agadir, Crotone, Edinburgh, Gdansk, Funchal and Tirana among the new winter links.
The two extra Bergamo aircraft represent a $200 million incremental investment, Ryanair said, lifting the Milan-based fleet to 33 jets and a stated $3.3 billion total investment. The carrier says the expanded operation supports more than 16,200 local jobs across Lombardy. To mark the launch it opened a limited seat sale from €29.99 on the Ryanair app and website.
CEO Eddie Wilson used the announcement to press Rome on airport taxes. Italy’s municipal tax at Bergamo and Malpensa can reach up to €7 per passenger after a recent €0.50 increase on non-EU flights at the country’s largest airports, Ryanair said. The airline contrasted that with Abruzzo, Calabria, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sicily and Emilia-Romagna, which it said are abolishing or cutting the tax to win growth.
If the national government scraps the municipal tax at all Italian airports, Ryanair said it would answer with another 40 aircraft, 20 million passengers a year, 250 new routes and 15,000 jobs across Italy—figures presented as a conditional pledge, not a filed order. For Milan travelers the immediate product change is simpler: more winter seats, ten new leisure and city routes, and a denser Malpensa bank beside the long-standing Bergamo base.
Ryanair already anchors much of Bergamo’s traffic; growing Malpensa by roughly a quarter for the winter season deepens its dual-airport Lombardy strategy. That split matters for northern Italian passengers who choose between the two airports for price, ground access and destination mix. Schedule filings can still shift before each route’s first flight, and the press release does not break out frequencies for every new city pair.
Passengers should confirm days of operation in the booking engine as winter inventory firms up. Some of the ten new names—Agadir, Funchal, Paphos, Tirana—point at sun and city-break demand, while Liverpool, Edinburgh and Gdansk add northern European links that feed both outbound Italians and inbound visitors. Reggio Calabria and Crotone extend domestic southern Italy coverage from the Milan system.
For Europe’s largest low-cost group, Milan Winter 2026 is another capacity bet in Italy even as it argues tax policy is holding the country back. The 33-aircraft, 125-route package is the concrete near-term story; the 40-jet “if tax goes” offer is the political lever. Either way, Lombardy is set for a busier Ryanair winter than a year ago, with Malpensa carrying a larger share of the growth.
Sources: Ryanair
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