Malaga Airport tempers its growth at the start of 2025

The Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport is not immune to the trends set by operators and tourism agents, as well as the hotel sector, which for now foresee a quieter Easter compared to previous years. It's too early to draw conclusions, but Aena reported this Wednesday that the main airport terminal has moderated its extraordinary growth during January. Thus, the numbers at the start of 2025 show a rise of 1.9% in passengers compared to January of the previous year.

Still Positive

Specifically, a total of 1,369,837 passengers traveled through the Malaga terminal this January, with an increase in operations of just 0.9%. These are still positive figures, but after two years of breaking record after record, even during the past holiday season, tourism indicators point to a stabilization of the destination. The factors are quite varied and now is not the time to analyze them in depth. Some tourism spokespeople point to rising prices, as well as increasing competition from other international markets, such as Turkey or Morocco.

Decline in National Traffic

The number of flights counted in January rose to 10,423. International connections accounted for almost 1.1 million visitors, out of the nearly 1.37 million total mentioned. The increase in travelers from outside Spanish borders continues to be above average, specifically up to 2.3%. The majority of the users counted traveled on commercial flights, totaling 1,363,896. Of these, 267,495 traveled on flights originating from or destined for a Spanish city (a decrease from 2024 of 0.2%).

Regarding international traffic, the markets with the highest demand in absolute terms were the British (243,083 passengers) and, at a somewhat greater distance, the Dutch (95,395), the German (92,280), and the Italian (84,350). As for the increase in operations, of the 10,423 total aircraft movements last month, 10,207 were commercial connections: 2,581 domestic (-1.2%) and 7,626 international (+1.1%).

Málaga stands slightly below the average in terms of air traffic evolution compared to all Aena's airports, totaling 46 airports and two heliports in Spain, the London-Luton Airport, and up to 17 airports in Brazil. Thus, they just closed the first month of 2025 with 24,999,784 passengers, a 6.2% increase from the same month in 2024. They managed 222,696 aircraft movements, a 3.6% increase from 2024, and transported 108,164 tons of cargo, a 5.6% increase from the same month last year.