MORE than 56 per cent of flights in Andalucia over the Christmas period were to and from the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Airport in Malaga. Throughout Andalucia, 6,537 flights were due from December 23 to January 9, of which 3,550 were for Malaga Airport.
Spain is the EU country which is most popular with low-cost airlines, with 1,900 available routes, according to a study by trip finder Liligo.com.
Malaga is the third favourite destination in Spain for these airlines, with 158 routes, beaten only by Barcelona and Madrid, with 387 and 325 respectively.
In Europe, the city with most low-cost flights is London, with 452, followed by Paris, with 421, and then Barcelona.
Seventy per cent of the airlines are based in Europe, and topping the Top 15 of favourites in Spain is Ryanair, followed by Vueling, Easyjet, Wizz Air and Air Berlin.
Ryanair has the most routes, with 3,087, followed by Easyjet, with 1,659, which is the company that is the busiest at Malaga Airport.
The airport’s director, Mario Otero, has told the news agency that the second runway will be completed this year, with construction now 80% complete, but will not come into operation until next year owing to quality controls which must first take place.
Speaking on the new terminal, T3, which was opened by the King and Queen last March, Otero said it has doubled the airport’s capacity. The facilities are now capable of coping with passenger volume of some 30 million people.
More than 9.5 million passengers have passed through T3 since it opened, on more than 80,000 flights.
