'plan malaga'
The new, larger building with modern transport exchange will be joined to the current terminal, and will double its current capacity to 9,000 passengers
31.07.09 - 13:20 -
VISIT. Concepción Gutiérrez and Luciano Alonso take visitors around the new facility. / A. SALAS
Construction of second runway at Malaga airport underway
Spacious, bright, modern, environmentally-friendly and functional. This is Malaga airport's new terminal, which will come into use in Easter 2010. Construction work will be finished at the end of this year, and during January and February of next year a trial will be carried out so that on opening day everything will work 'perfectly'.
The Secretary of State for Transport from the Ministry of Public Works, Concepción Gutiérrez, visited the facilities, accompanied by the Councillor for Tourism for the Andalusian Government, and the president of the Spanish Aviation Authority (Aena), Juan Ignacio Lema. Gutiérrez described the terminal as 'spectacular'. The airport is also awaiting the opening of a new second runway, due to be added at the end of 2010.
'With its expansion, the airport will almost triple its capacity and will bring its competitiveness into line with other European airports, with enough capacity for the next fifty years,' the Secretary of State told reporters. She also maintained that Malaga airport is 'of high priority' for Spain, after only Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat on the mainland.
Lema stressed that Malaga airport will next year be in 'an unbeatable condition' so that airline companies will use it as a connection centre, and that it 'responds to the demands of the 21st-century tourist.' New air routes are being studied carefully to boost tourism in Andalucía.
This terminal will be joined to the current terminal, generating a total area of 385,000m² (as opposed to the current 135,000m²) with the capacity to attend to 9,000 passengers per hour (30 million travellers a year) - double the current capacity - through 179 check-in desks and 48 boarding gates, with 7,500 pieces of luggage processed every hour.
The new terminal building will possess a modern transport interchange with access to buses, taxis, private and rental vehicles and the new railway station for the Malaga-Fuengirola Cercanías line and a possible high-speed AVE link to the airport. In addition two new road links will be added: the south, by way of the A-7 motorway, and the north, by way of the future ring road, which will be joined to the national MA-21 road. Furthermore, two car parks will be opened with space for 3,700 vehicles.
