Malaga Airport News Blog about Malaga Airport (AGP)

Helitt airplane

The Andalusian airline Helitt, which commenced its scheduled flights on November 21, has announced new routes and frequencies to debut in 2012, among which is the new route Madrid-Malaga.

The new route will operate on Fridays, starting January 1. This new route will be joined by new frequencies between Madrid-Melilla and Malaga-Melilla.

The new company had an average occupancy of 33% in its first four weeks, reaching 2,000 passengers. The punctuality rate is 98% and there were no notable incidents in the first month of existence.

With routes to Malaga, Barcelona and Madrid, Helitt has linked the city of Melilla with three of the most important cities in Spain.

The Premium Ice-cream brand Häagen-Dazs have opened a new shop in Malaga airport. A privileged location as millions of passengers pass through this airport each year, being the fourth most important by number of flights after Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.

New Häagen-Dazs at Malaga airport

Situated in the new Terminal 3 building, together with other top brands of food and fashion, this new premises has 122m2 and 64 seats to make the wait an unforgettable moment for the numerous travellers that pass through Malaga airport.

There is also a Häagen-Dazs stand located in the boarding gates area of the same terminal to be able to enjoy all the delicious flavours that the brand introduce each season, right until the last minute.

With this new opening, there are now 4 shops altogether in Malaga province and a fifth is foreseen to be opened soon.

Turespaña assure that the Russian operators estimate that 72% of the travellers choose Malaga

The Costa del Sol gains ground in the awakening of Russian tourism towards Spain. In the touristic launching of this market, after the speeding up of the visa proceedings, Malaga province has become the second Spanish destination in which the arrival of travellers from Russia has most grown. According to the figures provided by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade,  the Russian market’s touristic season has closed this year with a 72% increase in arrivals at the Costa del Sol, even surpassing the evolution experienced by the Costa Brava, that is usually the priority destination of these travellers. Only Mallorca, with a 79% rise, surpasses the results obtained in the province based on the figures provided by the main Slavic operators to the central government.

Rising prices
These tour groups also pointed out that the average price of the packages commercialised towards Spain have increased by 6%, although this has not affected the bookings.

The Ministry in charge of the Tourism stated that during the first nine months of the year, the issuance of visas increased by 58.5% compared to the same period. Only in the month of September, the Spanish Consulate in Moscow issued 68.500 permits, which meant an increase of almost 48 points.

Turespaña highlighted that this rise of Russian travellers has also meant an increase of air connections. In this sense, they pointed out that this year 25 Russian cities operated direct flights to Spain. Malaga even maintains, during the winter season, a direct route to and from Moscow with the airline company Aeroflot.

The foresights of the General Secretary of Tourism and Trade, managed by Joan Mesquida, indicate that during 2011 Spain will double the number of Russian tourists in comparison to 2009. An upturn that will mean reaching a figure of almost a million tourists. In fact, these figures confirm that it’s a market that has just taken off and that it will maintain the upward trend for the next couple of years, period in which the amount of arriving travellers will double once again. These expectations justify that the Russian market, together with the Arab countries, will become priority objectives in the promotion plan for 2012.

Just this week the government began a campaign to promote Andalusia’s main attractions in Russia and Poland and revealed that these markets have registered high increases of both, travellers and overnight stays, in the present year, with the overnight stays in Andalusian accomodations increasing by 36% in the case of the Russian tourists and by 58% in the case of the Poles.

The Tourist board explained that between the months of January and October, 69.475 travellers from Russia that stayed in Andalusian hotels, 28.8% more than during the same period last year, made 266.430 overnight stays with an average period of 3.83 days.

To this they add that over the first ten months of the year, the hotels of the region received 91.941 tourists from Poland, 41.9% more than last year, who made 318.271 stays in Andalusian hotels with an average period of 3.46 days.

- Until November they transported 34 million passengers, 57.2% of the total influx.
- In traditional companies 25.5 million passengers travelled, a 7.5% more.
- The Spanish airports most used by the low cost airlines were Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona-El Prat and Malaga-Costa del Sol airport.

Low Cost Airlines in Malaga

If they were already working well through good times, the low cost airlines seem to be working even better in times of crisis. There’s definitely no lack of clients.

The result is that the low cost airlines transported 34.19 million passengers over the first eleven months of the year, a 12.8% increase compared to the same period in 2010, as opposed to the traditional companies that transferred 25.5 million travellers, 7.5% more.

According to statistics from the Industry, Tourism and Trade Ministry, produced by the Institute of Tourism Studies, the low cost companies took up more than half of the air traffic until October, 57.2%, as opposed to the traditional companies that transported 42.8% of the travellers.

As for markets, UK and Germany lead the entrances in low cost companies, with 36.4% and 20.1% of the passengers that chose this way, respectively, with increases of 9.3% for the British market (12.4 million travellers) and increases of 5.9% for the German market (6.8 million passengers).

Italy, the third issuer, increased the arrivals by 16.1% with 3.6 million travellers, the equivalent of 10.6% of the total entrances this way. It was then followed by France, with 5.4% of the total and 1.8 million travellers, 27,8% more than a year ago.

Palma de Mallorca, the first airport
The rest of the countries presented generalised increases, all of two digits -except Ireland (+6.5%)-, in the number of low cost passengers emitted towards Spain. Amongst the countries worth mentioning are: Holland (+25.8%), Romania (26.6%), Portugal (+24.2%) and Norway (+19.8%).

So far this year, the Spanish airports that were most used by the low cost airlines were: Palma de Mallorca, with 6 million passengers, meaning an increase of 11.8%; Barcelona-El Prat, with 4.9 million passengers, 36.7% more; Malaga-Costa del Sol, with 3.8 million passengers, 7.1% more; Madrid-Barajas, with 3.44 million, 12.9% more; and Alicante, with 3.4 million, 7.9% more.

In order of autonomous regions, the Balearic Islands are top of the list, with 22.5% of the entrances and 7.7 million passengers, with an increase of 11.7%. Followed then by Catalonia with 19.7%, up to 6.7 million travellers (+11.9%); Canary Islands, with 5.6 million travellers (+24.2%) and Andalusia, with 4.7 million passengers (+8.7%).

The budget airline Ryanair connects Malaga and Palma de Mallorca from March 21, 2012 on a route that will operate four flights per week – Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

The Head of Marketing and Sales for Spain, Luis Fernandez-Mellado, said in a statement that this connection is added to the route network of Malaga airport – Costa del Sol.

Thus, programming for the summer season, the company has opted for this new connection, after the success of the route between the capital of the Costa del Sol and Ibiza.

On the occasion of this announcement Ryanair has launched a number of one way tickets across its route network for 9.99 Euros, including taxes, which can be booked until Thursday and with possibility to travel during January and February 2012.