Four companies bid to design expansion of Malaga Airport to handle 36 million passengers a year

The Malaga Airport expansion project already counts with proposals from four joint ventures. The bidding closed on 25 September and the proposals have already been uploaded to Aena's platform. The base budget (pending proposed reductions from interested parties) amounts to 36.56 million euros, with a nine-year execution period, as the contract will be in force throughout the development and commissioning of the new terminal.

The proposals come from four joint ventures of engineering and architectural companies: Viarium Ingeniería with Ayesa; Typsa, Ghesa and Blas Torres Gutiérrez; Cemosa, Sener and Fairbanks Arquitectos; and Prointec, Ove Arup and Estudio Lamela.

One name stands out among them - Bruce Fairbanks, an architect of American origin who has been based in Spain for more than three decades. His was the design of the T3 terminal at Malaga Airport in 2010. Now he is bidding to take charge of its next extension.

During a forum organised by SUR at the end of July, minister of transport Óscar Puente announced the contracting of the design work for the extension of the terminal area. Shortly afterwards, Aena's board of directors gave the green light to the tender, which was published in the official journal of the EU.

The specifications justify the high cost of this public contract, as the extension of the terminal area will take no fewer than 108 months. During this time, the successful bidders will be responsible not only for drafting the projects and design, but also for monitoring the work and putting it into service, until the planned solutions are fully implemented.

The Ministry of Transport has estimated the cost of the entire expansion of the airport at 1.5 billion euros. If the contract is awarded at the beginning of 2026, the extension of the terminals will be formally completed by 2035.

This does not mean that the construction will be completed at that time, as it is expected to finish sooner, but this will be the timeframe during which the technical assistance teams will be required to provide support in resolving any technical issues during the commissioning phase.

The plan includes all the necessary actions to almost double the surface area of the terminal space - from 80,000 to 140,000 square metres. Among the tasks are the construction of a new dock for non-Schengen traffic with centralised border control; the increase in aircraft contact positions (allowing passengers to board and disembark via gangways); an increase in the surface area for security control; and the redesign of the baggage handling system to facilitate the work of handling employees.

Also noteworthy is the 41% (43% in the case of VIP lounges) increase planned in the surface area for commercial activity in the terminal. In the airfield, new taxiways will be constructed to connect the runways with the aircraft parking apron, improving the flow of aircraft movement.

On the other hand, the two runways should have sufficient capacity to cope with the increase in demand for many years to come. In addition, outdoor areas, access and car parks will be improved and/or extended.

Last year, the number of passengers was already close to 25 million, while the extension will allow growth to be maintained at over 36 million, especially on peak days and months. Malaga Airport does not stop growing, with figures well above the average in Spain.

The terminals have just closed the best August in their history, after handling more than 2.8 million passengers and almost 19,300 flights in the main holiday month, a growth of 8%.

In the first eight months of 2025, more than 18 million passengers and 126,534 landings and take-offs have been recorded. A simple calculation suggests that, if this progression continues in the final stretch of the year, the figure will be around 27 million, well above the 25 million of the previous year.