Malaga Airport continues to break records with almost 5 million passengers in first quarter of 2025

Malaga Airport has broken a historic record in the first quarter of 2025. According to Aena, Spain's publicly-owned airport operator, the gateway to the Costa del Sol has once again increased traffic in terms of passenger volume, exceeding last year's record, the highest of its more than 100-year history. What is even more remarkable is that last year's figures included the Holy Week arrivals and departures, as the holiday fell in March, but this year Easter is not part of the first quarter. Yet, 2025 data from the first quarter still exceeds numbers from the same period last year, registering almost 4.8 million passengers and a 6% increase.

These figures consolidate the airport's position on the national map as the third largest facility in Spain, after Madrid and Barcelona. Malaga continues to make history.

The pull of March has been decisive, when almost 1.9 million passengers passed through the airport, some 8.3% more than in 2024. This is double the average for Aena's network and is the highest number recorded at the country's major airports. There were 13,489 aircraft movements on the runways, 11.3% more than in 2024. A total of 34,843 flights landed and took off in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 7%.

Aena confirms the cooling of national demand, which has continued during these first three months. A 1.3% decrease in Spanish passengers was recorded from January to March, while international traffic rose by 7.8%. These figures represent 867,295 and 3,910,295 of national and foreign passengers, respectively.

A record number of passengers was reached in Spain's whole air traffic network and especially at 16 airports, including Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, Gran Canaria, Tenerife Sur, Valencia, Seville, César Manrique-Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Bilbao, Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna, La Palma, Asturias and A Coruña.

Malaga Airport is already prepared for a historic high season, during which leading airlines will bring a great influx of passengers to the Costa del Sol. Ryanair, the leading airline in terms of passengers at Malaga Airport, has scheduled the largest operation in its history on the Costa del Sol, with 5.3 million seats, 5% more than last summer. In addition, the airline will connect Malaga with 91 European cities, six more than last summer. Of these, five will be new destinations that Ryanair has not flown to before: another airport in Warsaw; Brno, in the Czech Republic; Lübeck, in northern Germany; Münster, also in Germany; and Teesside, in the north-east of the UK.

Vueling, Malaga's second most popular airline, is also strengthening its commitment to Andalucía. Jordi Pla, Vueling's strategy director, has announced that this summer the company will link the Costa del Sol with 15 destinations, increasing connectivity with international destinations such as Amsterdam and London-Gatwick with seven extra frequencies. It will also increase its operations with Paris Orly by two flights a week. Domestic flights will also receive a boost on the Tenerife-North route, which will get seven new frequencies a week; in Las Palmas, with nine frequencies, and in Fuerteventura, with five. The company has proposed one more flight to Palma de Mallorca and two to Barcelona. In total, Vueling will increase seats by 23.2%, compared to the same period last year.

EasyJet also continues to grow at Malaga Airport. The company's general manager for Southern Europe, Javier Gándara, highlighted that this year is the fifth in a row in which they will have a seasonal base at the Costa del Sol airport, to meet peak demand during the summer. The airline will put 11% more seats on Malaga's market and increase destinations by five, bringing the total to 23.

Dutch airline KLM has also announced that it will endorse its operations at Malaga Airport. The company will increase the number of seats from Malaga to Amsterdam by 34% - a figure that significantly contrasts with the overall increase planned for KLM's entire network (4%). The increase reflects the jump in flights to double the number from last year.

Predictions about Malaga Airport become true year after year, often exceeding expectations. The airport closed 2024 with more than 25 million passengers, close to the 30-million capacity.