Malaga travel: high-speed rail suspension leads to new record at Costa del Sol Airport

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The number of passengers reached 1.6 million in February, with the number of journeys to Madrid increasing above all others

Ignacio Lillo

Málaga

Thursday, 12 March 2026, 16:03

Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport has already been growing steadily without the contribution of external factors. In February, however, the facility reached a new record for the month due to the high-speed rail suspension that is nearing two months in the province.

A total of 1.6 million passengers passed through the airport last month. This figure is 3.5 per cent more than in February 2025, which anyways remained in history as a great month. The main contributors to this rise are passengers travelling to and from Madrid (298,159). The transfer of users from the train to the plane is evident.

The high-speed train line suspension following the Adamuz train crash initially impacted the whole of Andalucía. That stretch in Cordoba is now open, but Malaga province still has no high-speed trains running directly to Madrid due to the slope collapse in Álora.

The latest update from the Ministry of Transport points to a total rail reopening on 23 March.

By markets, the UK remains the undisputed market leader, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Italy.

The airports of the Aena network closed February with 20,555,745 passengers, 2.8 per cent more than in the same month of 2025. Around 108,000 passengers (0.5 per cent) have used the plane as an alternative to the train from Malaga to Madrid or from Seville to Barcelona.

Leading air traffic markets

Despite the domestic pull, the bulk of traffic at the Costa del Sol Airport continues being foreign. In total, 1.27 million passengers opted for international connections in February (+2.4 per cent). By markets, the UK remains the undisputed leader, bringing 305,060 passengers to Malaga, followed by Germany (115,365), the Netherlands (91,431), Poland (77,269) and Italy (74,683).

In terms of operations, the airport handled 11,144 flights last month, 1.9 per cent more than in February 2025. A curious fact: while international flights grew by 3.1 per cent, domestic operations fell slightly (-1.3 per cent), suggesting that companies are using aircraft with greater capacity to cover the high domestic demand caused by the rail crisis.

Uncertainty over the war

The figures for the first two months of the year confirm that 2026 is off to a very strong start. In January and February, 3,016,153 passengers passed through Malaga Airport, 4.3 per cent more than in the same period last year. "The dynamism of the foreign market and the extraordinary upturn in domestic traffic place Malaga in a leading position within the network," airport operator Aena says.

At national level, Spanish airports as a whole also recorded a growth of 2.8 per cent in February, although Malaga remains above average and one of the main ways in Spain to get to Europe, whether for pleasure or work.

However, uncertainty looms over this upward trend in March. The armed conflict in Iran threatens the momentum in record numbers at Malaga Airport, especially given the closure of airspace in the Middle East.