Malaga airport looks forward to a busy winter with more flights and new destinations

Malaga airport is the fifth in Spain in terms of plane seats over the winter, according to the Aena airports authority, after Madrid-Barajas, which is offering more than 29.5 million, Barcelona-El Prat with over 23.1 million, Gran Canaria with 7.9 million and Palma de Mallorca with 7.3 million.

A total of 43 airlines are offering direct flights between Malaga and destinations around the world between November and March, and 16 of the 186 routes are new.

These include the Vueling flights connecting Malaga with Algiers and Marseilles, and others which were announced this week by Norwegian, which is the fourth biggest airline in terms of passenger traffic in Malaga.

This company, which will base six of its planes in Malaga this winter, is the one that has most increased the number of flights. It is now offering 45.5 per cent more seats on flights to Malaga, totalling more than 926,000.

Norwegian will be flying to 16 destinations altogether, including its latest addition, Dusseldorf.

Ryanair, which is the leading airline at Malaga airport in terms of volume of passengers, is also expanding its connections from the Costa del Sol this winter.

The low-cost Irish airline recently announced that it will be flying from Malaga to Luton six times a week, and it has introduced a connection to Oslo and another to Dusseldorf, which will be among 51 routes the airline is operating during the low season.

Sources at Aena say the two major markets for Malaga airport are performing strongly at present: Europe, with 152 routes, and elsewhere in Spain, with 29.

However, there will also be more flights to more distant destinations, such as the USA with 41.1 per cent more seats and 37.9 per cent more operations, and Africa, where the airlines have placed 30.4 per cent more seats on sale and programmed 17.2 per cent more operations so far.

Year-around attraction

These important increases are in contrast to the scheduling for last summer, when the airlines increased their connections with Malaga by four per cent. It is a clear indication that the companies can see the attractions of the destination at other times of year, and not just in the peak season.

The sector is also confident about the future of tourism within Spain, and has increased flights for the domestic market by 10.6 per cent to more than 10,400.

The number of seats on offer for flights within the country has now risen to 1.3 million, which is 10.8 per cent more than last winter.

However, most of the airlines have been focusing their attention on destinations elsewhere in Europe, with 16 per cent more seats and 14.7 per cent more flights.

There are 39.4 per cent more seats available to Sweden, 24.7 per cent more to Germany, 9.8 per cent more to Ireland and eight per cent more to Italy.

The UK continues to be the principal market, however, with a total of 44 routes to British cities, reinforcing its position as the country with the most connections and with 14.6 per cent more capacity.

This will no doubt compensate for the 5.5 per cent reduction which was registered in the numbers of travellers to Malaga from Britain between January and August this year.

flights will be landing or taking off from Malaga between now and March next year.

destinations around the world can be reached on non-stop flights from the Malaga-Costa del Sol airport.

new routes have been introduced from Malaga during the winter season.