AirMalaga.com News from The Ultimate Independent Malaga Airport Guide

This week, Ryanair will be cancelling flights that were purchased on websites other than their own for this summer all the way into next March. Their claim is that websites are illegally ’scraping’ content from their site and making it slow or unavailable for legitimate visitors to ryanair.com. The third-party sites they are targeting include eDreams and Opodo in France, Bravoflight in Switzerland, V-Tours in Germany, Tui in the UK, and Atrapalo in Spain. They also purport that these sites charge more than Ryanair’s rates and don’t adequately notify customers of flight changes. The fares will be credited back to customers on the same card used to purchase them, and the company will also notify the affected consumers by email.

Of course this has created a stir, and the European Commission is checking into whether this violates European consumers’ rights. It appears they’re agreeing in the case of those sites using Ryanair.com illegally, but yet to determine whether this affects travel agents operating in the same network.

On other fronts, Ryanair announced that it will open a number of new flight paths this fall, including one from Malaga to London (Stansted) starting October 28. This path will have a frequency of three flights a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The option for booking these flights is already on the Ryanair site, and of course they will only show available if you choose a flight date after the opening date of that path.

Adding to its direct connections in the Malaga Airport to Dublin, Shannon, Brussels, Frankfurt, Bremen and Düsseldorf, Ryanair announced this week a new route to Liverpool. This announcement comes on the wings of indications that the airline is doing pretty well, even in the face of a dim financial year for everyone besides the oil industry. They purportedly carried 4.5 million passengers in March, a 19% increase over last year’s stats. Anyway, back to Malaga. Other non-stop connections to the UK to be opened in 2008:

- Bournemouth (April)
- East Midlands (June)
- Edinburgh (September)

They will also be linking to France with a new route to Marseilles. With all these new connections, the airline expects to round out this year with a total of 460,000 passengers in flights to Malaga.

Top destinations for the Easter week: Malaga, Seville, Barcelona, Madrid and Palma de Mallorca. Whether you’re thinking of a pilgrimage to see the processions, or renting a car to just get away from it all and take a nice excursion, Malaga is going to be a dense traffic area. The national traffic authority predicts almost 2.7 million trips in and out of Malaga capital city for the week and surrounding weekends, a dizzying statistic for anyone considering travel. Hotspots will be the opening weekend and Thursday and Friday of Holy Week, between 12:00 and 2:00 pm. The Malaga provincial government also expects 6-10 pm to also have high chances for traffic jams. With the possibility of precipitation later next week, it sounds like the best times to drive are early in the day and early in the week.

Beware of driving in the capital itself: the main street drag (Alameda Principal) will be cut off almost all day the first Sunday, and there will be much more restriction on allowed parking areas. Authorities are recommending avoiding the city’s nucleus entirely by car, instead using the ring road and public transport. Renfe is adding 9,000 seats to its Madrid-Malaga AVE trip and opening their regional Cercanias train to Fuengirola up for additional nighttime hours. Depending on the day, you can catch a train home from downtown Malaga as late as 1, 2, 3, or 4 ‘o clock at night.

Be careful and enjoy the week!

They haven’t set a date or even how much this may impact the taxpayers’ pocketbooks. But travellers between Malaga and Barcelona now have hope of making the trip via the high-speed AVE train in even less time, by skipping the now-obligatory stop in Madrid’s central Atocha station. Minister of Public Works Magdalena Alvarez mentioned the plans for this new route without telling too much really. However, it is known that the route will use a good bit of the existing lines between Malaga/Madrid and Madrid/Barcelona, with the new section being a bypass around Madrid from Getafe to Vallecas. This should help reduce congestion in the already crammed Atocha station and decentralize the AVE service, making for more efficient travel itineraries. But don’t think this will stop flights, car rentals and private transfers from making this same journey; we need options, right?

Now that the Malaga Airport is getting more competition from the AVE high-speed train, comparisons are being made between the two. One thing they have in common is a long rank of taxis waiting to take arriving passengers away. But a number of under-handed practices are giving them a bad light, and have clients up in arms for a solution. Complaints centre around drivers contending for the best fares, but also extend to the lack of police personnel to take care of problems. One of the most common complaints is when a passenger mentions they are going to Malaga centre, a short-distance trip. The driver will defer them to the next cab, hoping to instead get someone going to Marbella or other lucrative fares. This may happen several times to a weary traveller, and is compounded when the drivers get into spats between themselves, even resulting in aggressive behaviour. It doesn’t stop there - drivers have been known to also react aggressively or just in bad taste to passengers who criticize their attitude.

Representatives of both the Association of Salaried Taxi Drivers (Asociación de Asalariados del Taxi) and Self-Employed Taxi Drivers (Aumat - Autónomos del taxi) concede these as common occurrences, but haven’t posed any viable solutions. Even though the local authorities also recognise the problem, they believe in the sector regulating itself. A good example is right outside the airport - there’s a local police post near the taxi stop, but users say police rarely intervene.

If this fray doesn’t sound appealing, check out the options for Malaga car hire and pre-booked taxis. There’s a number of companies who offer quality services, especially taxis that provide personalised, friendly service, and in your own language.

Delta Air Lines has announced plans to open a link on June 4 to Malaga via New York’s JFK Airport. Americans and Spanish people with business or family in the US are delighted, as this represents the first nonstop stateside connection of its kind. Undoubtedly, this will also open the door to cheaper fares (starting at 550 € round trip), since this provides competition for other multi-leg flights routed through Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, London and elsewhere. Also, new personnel in the Malaga Airport means extra jobs to boost the local economy.

The original number of flights per week on this route was set at 3, but the high number of pre-bookings have caused the American company to add another weekly flight. A source inside the company mentions possibilities of adding other connections to Malaga in the States as well.

Andalucia Romances New York With Its 8th Annual Flamenco Festival, February 2008
— Southern Spain’s Andalucia region excites New York with its 8th Annual Flamenco Festival during February with theater performances by stellar flamenco singers, dancers and musicians.

Residents of urbanizations near the Malaga Airport are receiving some aid from the Spanish aviation agency, AENA (Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aerea). Their plight is somewhat evident: proximity to the airport is causing more than just the occasional window rattle, but rather a daily invasion of private life from the roar of aircraft. Added to this, the expansion works for the second runway are also causing commotion.

In response, so far AENA has replaced standard windows with aluminum-framed, double-pane glass in 435 houses to help block out sound. However, many residents in the closest Guadalmar neighborhood say it’s not enough, since only dining and bed room windows were replaced, leaving other areas untouched. AENA is investigating the possibility of future flight plan changes that would avoid aircraft passing over Guadalmar.

Malaga is one of the busiest airports in Spain, and continues to grow and improve its facilities as the area attracts ever more visits from tourists and businesses. More than 13 million passengers used this airport last year.

Currently there are extensive expansion works under way which include a second runway, another passenger terminal, extra car parking, and better access to the airport including new roads and an on-site coach station.

Please bear in mind that these improvement works will sometimes cause delays getting to or from the airport - allow some extra time for making your outgoing connection.

Welcome to AirMalaga.com. Your brand new source for information on Malaga Airport!