TEXASQQ Alitalia added up to 488 movements and 42,000 passengers a day at the facility which, by the end of 1998, had handled 5.92 million passengers (an increase of more than two million over the previous year's figure). During the night of 24/25 October 1998, Alitalia moved the majority of its fleet from Rome Fiumicino Airport - where it had been flying from for over 50 years - to Malpensa Airport. Malpensa was designated as the centre for all services covering northern Italy, while Linate Airport was downgraded to a domestic and short-haul facility. Milan's city centre. The European Union recognised this project as one of the 14 "Essential to the Development of the Union" and provided €200 million to help finance the work. By the end of 1985, a law had been passed by the Italian Parliament that paved the way for the reorganisation of the Milan airport system.|Will it Pay Off?