New Runway at Malaga Airport.

The work that has been ongoing now for a few years at Malaga Airport is almost complete with only the new runway to finalise. Easter 2010, on time and as scheduled saw the opening of the new Terminal 3 Building, joined onto the current terminals and almost doubling the previous total area of 135,000m2 to the current 385,000m2.  The airport now has the capacity to deal with 9,000 passengers per hour, around 30 million per year with 179 check-in desks and 48 boarding gates.

The new runway, when completed around February 2011 will allow the capacity of flights per hour to almost double, from 37 to 72.  The expansion should also allow access for the new ‘super’ planes developed for those long haul flights making Malaga an ideal connection hub being at the far South of Europe.

The surrounding infrastructure has also benefited with improvements, a modern transport interchange with access to buses, taxis, private and rental vehicles and the new railway station for the Malaga-Fuengirola train.  Additionally two new road links will be added: the south, by way of the A-7 motorway, and the North, by way of the future ring road which will be joined to the national MA-21 road.  

This vast project will not only keep Malaga competitive as a transportation and commercial area, it will also benefit tourism and property prices throughout the Costa del Sol. The Junta de Andalucía has in recent years become quite dependent on British tourists which have made up a sizeable percentage of the foreign tourists flying to the Costa del Sol. They seem to have realised this and have over the last year been trying to promote the destination around the world. The new airport should allow for direct flights from most parts of the world now, making it easier for Chinese, Russian, etc… tourists to visit.

By allowing more direct flights from further a field, the average time it takes people to get to the Costa del Sol should decrease, which will allow more people to benefit (as many British, Irish, etc.. have) from shorter travelling times, making a second/holiday home in the sun a more convenient possibility.