Malaga Airport continues unstoppable: adds 7.7% more passengers until May

Unstoppable. Málaga Airport continues to grow significantly above the average of the Aena network in Spain. In the first five months of the year, it has seen a 7.7% increase in passengers compared to the same period last year. The boost in May, with a further increase of 8.7% and a historic movement of 2,584,681 users, has raised the total to nearly ten million travelers passing through these facilities from January to last month, according to Aena.

This intensity of traffic has also been felt on the runways, with an 8.2% increase in flights up to 69,389 at the start of the year. An even greater increase was recorded in May with 10% more landings and takeoffs than the previous year. And this is considering that in this period of 2024, operations increased by almost 17%. It is important to remember that the 8.2% increase in passengers this May is on top of an increase on the same date last year of 10.5%, or what was a 24.2% increase from before the pandemic.

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Aena's data confirm that the growth rate of Málaga Airport is far above the average of the Spanish infrastructure network. Just consider that in May, the average growth in this operator's network was 3.3%, with 29,226,368 passengers and an average increase in flights of 3.9%, managing 247,288 aircraft movements. In Málaga, travelers have increased by 8.7% and landings and takeoffs by 10% in the same period. These figures consolidate its fourth position after Madrid, which increases travelers by 1%; Barcelona, which grows by 3.7%; and Palma de Mallorca, which saw a 0.5% drop in users in May.

This faster growth rate is also evident when analyzing the first five months of the year, in which the Aena network has gained 4.7% more passengers, up to 120,118,113, and aircraft movements. In Málaga, this increase has been 7.7% in travelers and 8.2% in flights. These figures also contrast with the records reached between January and May at the airports preceding Málaga, such as Barajas, with a 3.6% increase in passengers; at El Prat, 4.1%; and Palma de Mallorca, 2.5%.

2,584,681

are the passengers recorded by Málaga Airport in May, a figure never reached in this month before.

The statistics support the request of the Junta de Andalucía to the Government to urgently adopt measures to proceed with the expansion of Málaga Airport, which has a maximum capacity of 30 million travelers and already closed 2024 with almost 25 million, approaching ten million in the first five months of the year, which are precisely the least active. And the data coincide at the height of the Junta's complaint about the Executive's silent response to Andalusia's request while agreeing to approve 3.2 billion for the expansion of Barcelona's airport. This behavior caused Arturo Bernal, the Tourism Councilor of the Junta, to explode days ago on the X network against the Ministry of Transport with a "enough of belittling Andalusia" in relation to the budget allocated for the Catalan airport, which includes the extension of the third runway, environmental compensations, and actions already planned in the two terminals of El Prat. Meanwhile, Málaga Airport continues to grow month by month above the national average and is approaching its maximum capacity without any response from the Government beyond being included in the investment plans for the period 2027 to 2031. However, Bernal warns that the Málaga airport will become too small at this rate of growth by 2026.

Regarding the activity of last May, Aena highlights the fact that for the first time more than 2.5 million passengers have been surpassed in Málaga and 17,977 flights. And they detail that this new record is determined by an increase of 4.2% in passengers on connections with Spanish airports and 9.5% in those connecting the Costa del Sol with international destinations. In the accumulated first five months, the growth of users on domestic flights has been 0.9% and 9.3% on those with international connections.

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