Il trasporto aereo delle merci: recenti evoluzioni, scenari geografici e ruolo di Malpensa

This work is part of the typical research field of transport geography. In particular, this paper focuses on air freight because it is a modal choice in strong growth over the past four decades. Moreover, air cargo is the indicator of a rapidly changing economic system and, not least, it is an area of considerable interest for geography, although not very discussed. From the methodological point of view, in the first part the analysis highlights the characteristics of the so-called “air cargo”. Besides it is underlined its growing importance through a dynamic reading of the strong link between this mode of transport and the transformation of production systems and of distribution processes on a global scale. In the second part, the air cargo recent dynamics’ analysis enables to describe the global flows scenario and to highlight the most important regions today together with the European market configuration. The ultimate goal of the work is to outline the distinctive features that have characterized the development of air cargo traffic in Italy and especially in the Malpensa airport catchment area, in order to understand its strategic choices and its future potential.