The opening of the newest airport in Europe -- at Malpensa in Italy -- was marked by delays and cancellations.

Airlines using the new airport said only five-hundred of the six-hundred-and-thirty flights scheduled were operating, and some were delayed for up to two hours.

A BBC Correspondent in Rome says there were technical breakdowns, and some equipment had not been transferred from Linate airport, which the new facilities are replacing.

Malpensa was built to overcome overcrowding at Linate to serve the area of Milan.

It is to handle eighteen-million passengers this year.