Malaga's mayor calls for 'maximum speed' for expansion of the airport

Mayor of Malaga Francisco de la Torre has joined the regional minister of tourism, Arturo Bernal, in a plea to the government for the immediate expansion of Malaga Airport.

The Andalusian regional government's patience has been wearing thin in the past few days, since it became clear that the Ministry of Tourism, while remaining silent in response to Bernal's letter and urgent call for expansion of the key facility on the Costa del Sol, announced an investment of 3.2 billion euros for the expansion of El Prat (Barcelona's airport).

It should be noted that Malaga Airport has once again broken passenger records this past May, counting almost ten million passengers in the first five months of the year - yet another all-time record. Last year, the airport closed with 25 million passengers, moving closer to its maximum capacity of 30 million, which the Junta expects will be reached in 2026. Despite this warning, the central government has not advanced any improvement project.

De la Torre criticised "the Ministry of Transport, which devotes very intense attention to mobility in Barcelona, in Catalonia", highlighting that Malaga Airport makes important contributions to the Spanish economy. To sustain this, the facility requires "a sustainable mobility response". For this reason, the mayor believes that the expansion of the Costa del Sol airport should be treated as an obligation by the central government - one that should be approached "with maximum speed".

It has been a month since Arturo Bernal sent a letter addressed to the minister of transport - Óscar Puente. In it, he demanded that the government "immediately" expand Malaga Airport and urgently asked him to activate the exceptional measures listed in the current Dora II document, which outlines the growth of all 45 airports in the network of Aena (Spain's airport operator) until the start of 2027.

Bernal warned that, although Dora II foresees that Malaga Airport will have reached 20.7 million passengers by the time the current plan runs its course next year, the facility has already surpassed that figure by a lot. Therefore, the forecast has been outdated due to the rapid recovery of tourism after the pandemic and the government's plan is far removed from reality.