Spotting Milan Malpensa - is it possible?

[james143611]

Hello all,

Looking at arranging a surprise birthday spotting holiday at Milan Malpensa in September this year (2018) but I'm not sure if this will be possible? I do numbers and photo's but my friend only does photo's.

Having looking at spotting guides, some are quite old, it mentions about police move spotters on and some have been fined in the past? On the flip side, one report mentions that it isn't as bad as it used to be anymore, but I don't want to spoil a birthday treat by ending up getting fined or keep getting booted away by security and police.

Any advice or should I just look at going to some other country?


Any help is appreciated!

James.

[fokker74]

I was there 2,5 years ago no problem with spotting. i stayes in holiday inn express that is between the 2 terminals. between the terminals there is a free bus services and takes 15 minutes. T2 handels all the easyjet flights and termaninal 1 the rest. in terminal 1 landsite there is a large window all the way so you can see almost everything. on both of the corners outside you can also make pictures outside. but this spot is in the morning till 13.00 sun fasing . the outher site there are some spots for line up pictures but no bus services. and takes a long walk if possebel.
from t1 you can walk to a nice museum volandia takes 10 min.

i had no problem with police , the spotters site clipper malpensa can help you more and if you book a hotel via that site you get a dicount.

[fabrycape]

It's possible, you don't have problem with police. You can't touch the fence (there are sensors).
As soon as possible I'll give to you some advice.
Malpensa is my home airport.
Forget clipper if you are looking for nice photo locations..

Best regards
Fabrizio

[JimmyVDM]

I was there this February so I'll tell you briefly what is possible and what isn't.
First of all you can spot at the Check-In desks, but keep in mind that at this location you will have reflections on your pictures because of the glass. You can see 1 side from Terminal 1A and 1C and see both sides from Terminal 1B. Terminal 2 isn't visible from there. Since you're at check-in you can stay there just before your flight or even if you're not flying.

The second spot is reachable by train from both Terminal 1 and 2. I know for sure that at terminal 1 there is a counter where you can buy tickets for the train to Ferno. The ticket costs about €5 return for one person. It might cost a little bit more but I don't know too much more about that. Keep in mind the train only runs once per hour. At Ferno you'll arrive underground and you need to take the stairs to the surface. From here you need to walk 20 minutes (I suggest you look at google maps how to get there since me explaining wouldn't help much.)
The location for this is as follows: 45.616022 N and 8.743488 E.
The spot is also reachable by car and you can park there, there is a parking lot right at the spot.

At this spot you can take pictures for lineup on 25R and arrival on 25R with a lens with 70-300 or even 70-200 it is doable. For lineup I'd say it's really nice but for arrival I don't have any experience since I only was there for one day. You don't have to worry about a ladder or anything since you are on a small hill where you can stand on. For 25L you can also take pictures but that's quite far away so you would need a minimum of 300mm or more (that's what I think, I don't have a large lens so I don't know from experience).