Expansion of Malaga Airport will allow 36 million passengers a year, once every last bit of available space is used

Ignacio Lillo

Malaga

Tuesday, 8 July 2025, 10:26 | Updated 11:48h.

Spanish airport operator Aena's expansion plans for Malaga Airport foresee an increase in maximum capacity to 36 million passengers. This detail has only been revealed by technical sources, without confirmation following the meeting between Aena president Maurici Lucena, Malaga mayor Francisco de la Torre and president of the provincial authority Francisco Salado.

The current capacity is for 30 million passengers, although the airport managers are confident that they "can stretch" this figure to accommodate more people in the winter months or in certain time slots with fewer flights (such as early morning). In terms of expansion, it is important to note that the capacity issue arises at terminals, not on the two runaways, which have a much longer period of stability.

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Last year, the number of passengers was already close to 25 million and Malaga Airport doesn't seem to stop growing, with figures well above the average of the network in Spain. From January to May this year, the facility grew by 7.7% in passenger volume. May saw another exponential increase of 8.7%, reaching a record of 2,584,681 passengers.

Estimates predict 27 million passengers in total this year, which implies that the current maximum capacity of 30 million will be reached within a maximum of two years.

Even if the airport managers stretch the capacity by redistributing traffic, the Costa del Sol facility would not be able to sustain this rate of growth for more than a few years or a decade. That is not much, considering that the expansion that would be needed (still not officially announced) will require an investment running into hundreds of millions of euros.

Why? Because, in reality, there is simply no room left. This is the most worrying conclusion: the airport facility will be maxed-out with the last terminal area upgrade, once the space taken up by the airfield (the two runways) is factored in. "This is as far as Malaga Airport can go; this is the absolute ceiling," technical sources consulted by SUR warn.

To start talking about expansion, we would need to look at new land and how it can be developed. The Alhaurín de la Torre town hall, for example, has been promoting an airport city for decades now.

Other options are the construction of a second airport, like the Antequera project, or using the Granada Airport as a satellite of Malaga. For this, it would be vital to connect the Granada terminal with Malaga city by train.

According to the plans that will be included in the new airport regulation document for the 2026-2031 period (DORA III) to be approved in September next year, the proposed redesign of the terminals envisages almost doubling the surface area of this infrastructure. The increase will be from the current 80,000 square metres to some 140,000 square metres.

Among the main actions are the demolition of T1 (currently unused) and of the non-Schengen flight piers docks, i.e. the current B and C. In exchange, a new boarding area will be built next to the second runway.

Aena foresees the construction of a new pier for non-Schengen traffic, with centralised border control; an increase in positions to improve the quality of service to airlines and passengers; a larger surface area for security control; and the redesign of the baggage handling system to improve operations, among other actions.

Aena plans to put the construction project out to tender in the coming weeks, once the functional design has been completed. Therefore, drafting of the projects for the set of actions will take place next year. The start of the environmental processing has been programmed for 2028. All in all, the aim is that the refurbishment work on the ground can begin in 2029.