Malaga sees the highest growth for July among Spain's key airports

July kicked off at Malaga Airport with some days witnessing over 600 landings and take-offs, totalling 1,798 operations at the start of the first rush of summer trade, making it the fastest-growing airport in the country's top 10 during this period.

Aena data highlights that July ended with record-breaking passenger numbers and flight operations. More than 2.8 million passengers passed through, that is almost 8% more, plus 19,814 flights in or out, up 7.7%. As a result, this marks July as the busiest month on record, both in number of passengers and volume of flights.

To gain some idea of the strength of Malaga Airport on the Spanish travel market, it is enough to note that it more than doubles the average growth of the entire network of this public company, Aena, that manages most of Spain's major airports.

Malaga Airport also contrasts heavily with the performance of similar airports across Spain - for instance, Madrid-Barajas (0.6% growth), El Prat in Barcelona with an increase of 2.9% and Palma de Mallorca, which failed to match July 2024 figures and is left with a slight decrease of 0.1%.

"This progression was due to the dynamism shown by both domestic and international traffic, both with significant growth of 11.9% and 7.3% respectively," states Aena. Turning to the details, Aena also notes that the markets with the highest demand in absolute terms were the British market (676,296 passengers) and, somewhat further behind, the German market (204,219), the Netherlands (162,377), France (160,610), Ireland (139,482) and Italy with 135,882.

The busiest days just happened to fall on two different Sundays. On 13 July, when the airport broke its operations record by handling 689 movements in a single day, including arrivals and departures, while the peak number of daily passengers was reached on the 27th with 98,949 total passengers in one day, according to Aena.

If we look at the total for the first seven months of this year, Malaga Airport has gained 1.1 million more passengers compared to the same period last year. Specifically, according to Aena data, from January to July some 15.2 million passengers have passed through these airport facilities, a 7.8% increase. Also, 107,248 aircraft landed and took off on the runways, an 8.1% increase.

Aena notes that "last month saw an absolute record number of passengers at the following airports: Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, Valencia, Bilbao and Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de la Laguna."

Malaga is also among the airports with the highest number of flights ever. "In July, an all-time record number of operations was broken at ten airports: Josep Tarradellas Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Ibiza, Alicante, Tenerife Norte, Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaen, Logroño, Ceuta Heliport and El Hierro Airport."

It is worth noting that, in July 2024, 2,659,167 passengers passed through these facilities, representing an increase of 9.3%. A total of 18,401 flights operated on Malaga's runways, an increase of 6.2%. These figures allowed the airport to complete the first seven months of the year with 14,153,622 passengers, a 13.2% increase and an increase of 9% in landings and take-offs, totalling 99,185.

Furthermore, the Costa del Sol airport recorded the best June on record and also the best half-year in its 106-year history. Six months in which it has gained one million passengers compared to the same period last year. Precisely 12,394,682 passengers passed through these facilities in the first half of the year, 7.8% more. A total of 87,434 aircraft took off and landed on the runways in the same period, an 8.2% increase, placing the Costa del Sol airport firmly in fourth place of the most important airports in Spain and also the fastest-growing of the four main ones. These figures "make this first half of the year the busiest in the history of this infrastructure", according to Aena.

A key factor in this record being set was the frenetic activity in June. The control tower personnel coordinated a daily average of 601 flight ops, a figure that demonstrated the dynamism of these facilities, with Aena handling 2.6 million passengers, an increase of 8.2%. A total of 18,045 flights were recorded on the runways, an increase of 8.2%. Of the total number of passengers last month, 427,219 travelled on flights to or from a Spanish city, an increase of 8.8%, while 2,201,927 opted for international connections, an increase of 8.1%.