Malaga Airport News Blog about Malaga Airport (AGP)

The French airline Air France connects Malaga airport and Toulouse in southern France from next April 1. This new route will have a frequency of three flights a week, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The announcement was made along with more new connections of the airline in the Spanish market for next year.

In this context, Air France reported its intention to operate direct flights from Barcelona to Marseille from next March 25, from Seville and Malaga to Toulouse from April 1 and from Barcelona to Nice from April 3, with the beginning of the tourist season.

In total, Air France will offer 24 weekly flights to and from these new destinations which will be operated with Airbus A-320 and A-319 and only have one class. Ticket prices will be from 45 Euros per flight and all inclusive.

Passengers outside arrivals T3 Malaga airport

The tourist movement at Malaga airport-Costa del Sol this year has surpassed in November the total number of travelers received during 2010, with a total of 12,215,697 passengers.

The number of passengers has increased from January to November this year by 6.6 percent over the same period in 2010. Of all the passengers, 12,158,141 were traveling on commercial flights and 9,684,287 on international flights, as has been reported from Aena airports.

This upward trend is also reflected in the cumulative volume of movements, since in the first 11 months of 2011, the number of flights increased to 101,462; a two percent increase compared with the same period last year.

By country, travelers on flights with origin or destination in the UK, the largest international market for Andalusia and Malaga, were the most numerous, with 30.09 per cent of the total; followed by passengers of Spanish cities and travelers from Germany, the second source market abroad.

Passengers boarding Ryanair plane

Although hardly anyone likes their methods, the controversial airline Ryanair is the absolute leader at Malaga airport, to the point that in the first ten months of this year it has reached a market share of 21%. Put another way, one of every five passengers passing through Malaga has embarked on a plane of the Irish low-cost airline.

When the eccentric company president Michael O’Leary launched in December 2009, dressed as Santa Claus, the Ryanair base at Malaga airport coinciding with the opening of Terminal 3, he predicted that Ryanair would become the first airline in 2010 and surpass 2 million passengers. The results not only proved him right, but even were somewhat higher (2,113,374 passengers).

This year Ryanair’s superiority is being overwhelming and, according to official data from Aena, between January and October has reached 2.5 million passengers taking one million customers from the second largest company in Malaga, Easyjet.

The key to success has been, firstly, to offer very cheap rates and, secondly, having a large number of picturesque destinations. With Ryanair you can fly directly from Malaga to Billund (Denmark), Tampere (Finland), Haugesund (Norway) and Krakow (Poland) among many others.

The first six companies at Malaga airport are low cost, while traditional companies occupy more secondary positions. This new model is required by travelers who claim to pay as little as possible. It is unknown whether the strategy will be successful or not but what is clear is that the airport has continued to win passengers since it opened the Terminal 3.

Luggage trolley airport

Workers who are responsible for collecting carts at Malaga airport have called for strike during the month of December, as they have not been paid the salaries of the month of September. The company and the workers committee came, after another strike, to an agreement in August, which has now been broken just three months later.
The workers committee apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause to passengers and users of the Malaga airport terminals.

The strike will take place on December 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 29 and 31, from 11 am to 2 pm.

The launch of Malaga airport terminal 3 has not gone unnoticed by the airline companies. The importance of this province, main tourist entrance to Andalusia and fourth largest airport in Spain, has drawn a lot more attention. From the almighty low cost firm Ryanair to the Turkish company Turkish Airlines, amongst others. During the winter season 2009-2010, before the opening of the T3, 70 airline companies operated in Malaga, flying to 128 destinations. A year and a half later, in the current season, there are 85 airlines and 145 destinations, according to the figures provided to this journal by the Spanish Airports and Air Navigation Association (Aena).

Malaga Airport Terminal 3

Malaga will be connected this winter with 24 UK airports – It’s the main destinations and the one that moves more travellers each year, both going out and coming in –, as well as 25 Spanish airports and 15 German, amongst others. As a novelty, there will also be flights to Oslo (Norway), Kuusamo (Finland), Leipzig (Germany), O Porto (Portugal), Lille (France), Farnborough (UK) or Valladolid (Spain), as well as other already traditional destinations such as Moscow, Casablanca, Montreal, Stockholm, Rome or Copenhagen, amongst others.

The companies German Sky Airlines and Helitt Airlines will be launched in Malaga this winter –this last one is based in Costa del Sol’s capital and started operating last week with a flight between Malaga and Melilla-, while there are other companies that have already been present at Malaga airport this past Summer but will be flying for the first time this winter from Malaga. These are: Cityflyer Express (flying to Glasgow, Manchester and London City in the UK), Bristol Flying Centre (flying to Bristol, London-Biggin Hill, Cardiff and Jersey, also in the British market), Alba Star, flying to Malpensa airport in Milan, and Turkish Airlines that will be flying directly to Istanbul.

During the first ten months of the year, 95.398 flights have operated at Malaga airport, which has meant an increment of 2.9% compared to the same period last year, thanks to the increase of companies and destinations. The number of travellers has grown accordingly and, according to Aena figures, between January and October 11.5 million passengers passed through Malaga airport, which represented an increase of 7.5% compared to the first ten months of 2010. In any case, we must bear in mind that the tourism sector is one of the least affected by the crisis and that the Costa del Sol, a traditional destination for the Brits and Germans, is recovering tourists, so car hire Malaga companies, travel agencies, taxis and other local businesses also benefit from the new trend.

“We are satisfied with the way things are going but we cannot relax and there is definitely no time for complacency”, emphasised Salvador Merino, Malaga airport’s manager, who pointed out that “for the winter season we hope to continue working with the same excitement, eagerness and dedication to favour and help the initiatives of those companies that believe in Malaga, to continue improving and adjusting the airport’s operations until we make it hard not to choose us”.

Aena are satisfied with the results of the new terminal although, obviously, they are aware that we live in a global world with many actors. Merino explained: “We trust that the airline sector’s recovery trend will consolidate in 2012. The trend evokes this state of mind as the figures reflect the consolidation of the air transport’s increase, benefitted by the improvements in efficiency and competitivity introduced with the amendments taken place in both, the air navigation area as well as the airport’s management”.

The manager of the airport stated that the past month of October, Aena attended an important event in Berlin –The Routes Development Forum- in which the representatives of the main airports and airline companies worldwide gather together and introduce new ideas for the Spanish airports. Nevertheless, Merino pointed out “we must bear in mind that the decision is in the hands of the airline companies and that we are going through an economic crisis. The airlines fly to the destinations where the clients want to fly to, wherever there’s a market. And our obligation is to make that happen”. For now, it seems like these companies believe in Malaga.