The success of easyJet's first peak season with a seasonal base at Malaga airport is evidenced by the fact that the airline is already making big plans for next summer.

The British airline has just announced an investment in four new aircraft for 2022 and two of them will be used to increase flight activity at the Malaga airport. It means that next summer the company will have five planes based on the Costa del Sol.

Javier Gándara, easyJet's director for Southern Europe, said that he is “very happy” to be able to announce this new investment in the Spanish market despite the still difficult environment that the entire industry is going through.

He also points out that the fleet expansion will allow the creation of 120 new jobs at its two bases located in Malaga and Palma, with another one at the Portuguese Faro airport. And the additional staff will join the 400 workers that the airline already has in Spain.

Fleet boost

The investment will mean that next summer the airline will have five aircraft based in Malaga and seven in Palma, which brings the number of aircraft in Spain to 16, counting the four that the company has at its base in Barcelona.

“With this investment and the opening of the Malaga seasonal base last June, we have increased the fleet in Spain by 40 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels. Considering both Spain and Portugal, where one more aircraft will be based, the fleet will have increased by 70 per cent in the summer of 2022," he said.

When easyJet opened its summer base in Malaga in June, the airline had three A320 aircraft with the capacity to transport 156 passengers and led to the creation of 120 direct jobs for pilots and crew. It connected the Costa del Sol with fourteen routes to Europe and the United Kingdom.

Javier Gándara emphasises that "we are always evaluating new opportunities and given the success of our new seasonal bases in Spain and Portugal, adding more capacity to these destinations was the logical step".

Since the start of easyJet’s operations to Malaga in 1999, the airline has carried more than 36 million passengers, which places the Costa del Sol "among the favourite destinations of the company's network", acknowledges Gándara.