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Milan Malpensa ATC Simulator

LIMC / MXP — Italy

Milan Malpensa (LIMC / MXP) is one of the real-world terminal areas you can control in the free ATC Radar Simulator. Its approach (APP) airspace — centred near 45°37.8'N 8°43.7'E in Italy — is modelled with real runways, radio navaids and instrument procedures. As the approach controller you sequence arriving traffic onto the ILS approach, launch departures on their standard instrument departures, and keep every flight safely separated on the radar.

Milan Malpensa is northern Italy’s main long-haul and cargo airport, in the Ticino valley about 50 km north-west of Milan, with Lake Maggiore and the Alps to the north. Its two parallel runways, 17L/35R and 17R/35L, are almost 4 km long and about 800 metres apart, and the Malpensa VOR (MAL) is on the airport.

Malpensa shares the Milan terminal area with Linate and Bergamo. Its arrivals come in past the Saronno (SRN), Voghera (VOG), Trezzo (TZO) and Biella (BLA) VORs — from ABESI and DEGAD over the Alps to the north, LEGLO to the east, ROBAS to the south-east, LESAN to the south and KERES and GARLO to the west — and all converge on the MAL VOR on the airport.

Runways

Runways 17L, 35R, 35L are equipped with an ILS (Instrument Landing System) — a localizer for lateral guidance and a glideslope for the descent path down to the threshold. In the simulator you turn arrivals onto the extended centreline, clear them for the approach, and watch them capture the localizer and glideslope automatically.

Radio navaids

VOR/DME: MALSRNVOGTZOBLA

Standard arrivals (STARs)

Standard departures (SIDs)

The terminal airspace

• Field elevation: 767 ft above sea level.
• Transition level: FL70 — below it aircraft fly altitudes on the local QNH; at or above it they fly standard flight levels.
• Upper limit: FL195 — overflights cross the sector below this level.
• The terminal control area (TMA) extends roughly 69 NM around the field.
• Entry / exit fixes on the boundary: MALSRNVOGTZOBLAABESIPEPAGDEGADODINALEGLOROBASBOTALLESANKERES

How to control Milan Malpensa in the simulator

Malpensa runs a north–south pair of runways, with 35R the default for landing and an ILS on 35L, 35R and 17L. Arrivals from the north come down over the Alps through ABESI and DEGAD, so start them descending early; those from the east and south join via SRN and VOG. The parallels are about 800 m apart — too close for independent approaches — so build one evenly spaced final.

Pick Milan Malpensa when you start a session, then double-click an aircraft's data block to assume it. Give it radar headings, climb or descend it to a level and control its speed to build an orderly stream toward the runway. Turn arrivals onto final, clear them for the ILS, and keep at least 3 NM and 1,000 ft between aircraft — the short-term conflict alert (STCA) warns you before a loss of separation. New to it? Read the guide to approach radar control and the ATC glossary first.