SEA Prime, the company that operates the general aviation infrastructure at Milan, Italy’s Linate and Malpensa International airports under the brand Milano Prime, reports its traffic for the first three months of the year is up 60 percent compared with 2021, and 17 percent versus pre-Covid 2019.

The company, which is making its first U.S. appearance since October 2019, is exhibiting this week at NBAA’s Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference in San Diego. Italy and Milan in particular was heavily impacted early on by the Covid pandemic in 2020, and SEA Prime noted that its 2021 growth over those stunted 2020 numbers was 74 percent, and it was 11 percent above 2019 totals. Both numbers exceeded the Italian and European averages.

With an eye toward the 2026 Winter Olympic Games that will take place in nearby Cortina, the company has broken ground on a new 50,600-sq-ft hangar at Linate, which will boost the total available business aviation hangar space at both airports to 366,000 sq ft.

Furthering sustainability is also among the company’s goals with the use of electric ramp vehicles. In December, Linate became the first airport to fuel a business aircraft with sustainable aviation fuel in Italy. SEA Prime is also part of a working group looking to foster the development of urban air mobility and the needed infrastructure.