2023 will see Malaga airport's runway numbers making history

Malaga is the fourth largest airport in Spain in terms of air traffic volume, behind Madrid, Barcelona y Palma.

So far this year the numbers have continued to grow. In 2019 a new record was achieved - 140,000 aircraft movements. Then the pandemic cut short this growth pattern. In 2022 the airport almost matched that 2019 milestone, Now, for 2023, when the record of 20 million passengers has already been broken, there are high hopes that the figures will reach a new high in the history books.

"It has been a year of resounding success at the airport," said Raúl Delgado, in charge of the control tower. "We are two months away from year end with 134,000 aircraft movements and with growth figures that can only be described as spectacular, up by 20 per cent on 2022. Over the last two years we have observed less seasonal fluctuation. Previously, in winter there was a sharp drop in traffic, but now the drop is levelling out."

As an example, during the first weekend in November, there were around 450 aircraft operations per day, a total "pretty close to summer figures". By the end of November, the 2019 record will have been broken, and we still have December's numbers to add to the total, which comes with equally high forecasts.

During the summer there are as many as 600 flights every day, although the majority of days see 500.