Why AGP instead of MLG? This is the real reason for Malaga Airport's strange identifier code and why some want it to be SOL

Many passengers who fly to the Costa are puzzled by the acronym on their plane ticket, which might even lead some to wonder whether they are travelling to the correct destination

Pilar R. Quirós

Malaga

Friday, 9 May 2025 | Updated 15/05/2025 15:33h.

While Madrid (MAD), Barcelona (BCN), Brussels (BRU) and many other cities around the world have airport codes that use the main letters of the city's name, Malaga's doesn't even resemble the visual composition of its name. The far-fetched logic behind the abbreviation is impossible to decipher even by the most brilliant scientist or thinker. Foreigners who fly to Malaga are puzzled by the acronym on their plane ticket, which might even lead some to wonder whether they have bought the correct one. Even if Malaga citizens have complained about the code of their airport, there has not been much of a change.

So what is the history behind this curious abbreviation? When the International Air Transport Association (IATA) was to baptise Malaga Airport, it found that the letters that could be combined for its code were already being used: MLG is reserved for the Mangoli Island in Indonesia; MGA is used by Managua; and MAG is associated with Madang in Papua New Guinea.

IATA was therefore left with the option to choose two letters from Malaga's name and add a third one, in order to create a combination that was not already in use for another airport's code. So they chose A and G (the fourth and the fifth letters of the city's name) and added P, as it was one of the few that could join without the code duplicating another.

According to some urban myths, AGP stands for Aeropuerto Gran Picasso or for Agripina. As we can see, neither matches reality. Much later, in June 2011, Malaga airport was renamed Malaga-Costa del Sol. Since then, the tourism industry has been demanding that, since the full name includes the Costa del Sol (which is Malaga's popular nickname), the airport code should be SOL. It seems that, for now, that demand has not been very successful.

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