Trees selectively felled near Malaga Airport to increase aviation safety

It is obvious that operational safety at airports is key, especially at an airport like Malaga's, which handled almost 25 million passengers in 2024. In order to make this infrastructure's second runway more functional and safer, Spanish airport operator Aena has been carrying out a programme of obstacle removal in different phases for some years now. In addition to the reduction of the height of the Canal Sur tower, Aena is currently carrying out selective felling of trees in the area around the mouth of the Guadalhorce river.

The species in question are eucalyptus trees, considered an invasive exotic species. The regional government's plan is to replace such species with endemic plants. This is an essential action that has been authorised by the regional ministry of agriculture.

Aena has stated that it will repay the regional ministry of sustainability and the environment for facilitating the functioning of the runway by planting poplars in the area.

Air safety also involves Aena's participation in numerous sector reports required for major infrastructure and construction projects, both public and private.

Specifically, the removal of obstacles is carried out to ensure the operability of runway 30 of the airport's second runway, which was brought into service in 2014. This runway end corresponds to the southernmost position of the runway, adjacent to the MA-21 motorway.

The Canal Sur tower is no longer an obstacle for the runway, which has a length of 2,750 metres for landings and 3,090 metres for take-offs. Since its opening, it has been operating at half throttle due to two factors: the environmental impact on the mouth of the Guadalhorce river and the height of the tower of the nearby Andalusian radio and television station. Before the reduction work, the RTVA tower was over 42 metres high.

Despite these actions, the new head of the second runway will not increase operations for environmental reasons, but it will facilitate the tasks that are already in place.

At present, Malaga Airport operates with "one and a half runways". When the whole procedure is completed, the two runways (with four headways) will be available. Although there are physically two runways, in air navigation the airfield is considered in terms of flight directions, so the current three runway ends will be increased to four.

In any case, heading 30 is only going to be used very occasionally for ecological reasons: to minimise the impact on the mouth of the Guadalhorce river, which is a protected bird habitat. It can, however, be used for emergencies, in the event of work taking place on the main runway (13/31) or when an aircraft blocks it due to an issue.