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If you've been wondering when Málaga Airport's much talked about expansion will actually get underway, the answer is 2029. Director Sergio Millanes confirmed on Tuesday that building work will start then and run for around seven years, transforming the Costa del Sol's main gateway into something considerably bigger and busier than it is today.

 

This follows the Council of Ministers approving €830 million of that investment back in mid September, part of Aena's third Airport Regulation Document, which will eventually allow the airport to handle up to 36 million passengers a year, up from its current 30 million.

 

The overall project carries a price tag of €1.5 billion, with more than €850 million of that already earmarked in the Airport Regulation Document covering 2027 to 2031. Millanes, who took over as director in July after previous roles in Seville and the Canary Islands, described the coming changes as a "very important transformation" that will "touch all flows" through the airport.

 

Some of the numbers involved are eye catching. Passport control space will grow sixfold, security checkpoints will more than double, the arrivals area will triple in size, and the taxiway between runways will be widened to allow aircraft to cross simultaneously rather than queuing.

 

It's easy to see why the expansion is needed. Málaga Airport has recorded a 6.6% rise in passengers between January and August compared with last year's record breaking figures, reaching 19.3 million travellers so far. This summer brought peak days of more than 107,000 passengers, described by Millanes as "steady, robust" growth with barely any disruption. Rather than working to annual targets, the airport measures its current hourly capacity at 9,800 passengers, a figure set to rise once the new works are complete. Millanes said that if nothing unexpected happens, this year should end with more passengers than 2025's milestone total of 26.7 million.

 

The airport remains a major economic hub too, supporting around 10,000 jobs, and last summer operated 262 routes with 54 airlines connecting 52 countries. Millanes pointed to Middle East routes as a particular success story, growing "despite the difficulties and political instability" in the region, largely thanks to connections through hubs like Istanbul.

 

He also confirmed the New York route, run by United Airlines over summer, is "working very well," though whether it becomes year round remains the airline's call. On a possible second US route, he was upbeat, saying "the American market is so enormous, that I think it can certainly absorb" one, while Asian connections, including a long discussed China route, remain "complicated" for now, since flights from China currently only serve Madrid and Barcelona.

 

That said, Andalucía's tourism board has been actively courting Chinese, Japanese and South Korean visitors in recent weeks, running workshops across Asia to grow a market that already generated more than 427,000 overnight hotel stays in the region between January and July this year.

 

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