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Malaga Airport Second Runway Due To Open 26th June 2012

The Second Runway that is due to open on the 26th June this year at Malaga Airport, signals a step in the right direction to help Spain’s Economic Recovery. The prospect comes as great news to not only the tourist industry but to holiday makers and Malaga airport itself. The second runway has been 5 years in the planning and following an outlay of over 370 million Euros, it will see the airport’s hourly capability of dealing with traffic virtually double, increasing it to an awesome 72 flights with 9,500 passengers landing and taking off every hour! This is obviously great news for the local tourist economy in general, as this could potentially provide a boost to Spain’s beleaguered economy by increasing the tourist levels on the Costa del Sol. The Costa del Sol is Spain’s premier holiday attraction welcoming some 3 million tourists per year in its many famous resorts. These resorts include Malaga, Marbella, Nerja, Puerto Banus and Torremolinos. With the huge increase to Malaga airports handling potential, many more countries and airlines will have access to, what is after all, one of the world’s most favourite holiday destinations. There is also of course the monetary exchange rate to take into account. The Euro is at present struggling to stand on its own against other established currencies like Sterling. The end result is that you can buy far more Euros with your pound or other non-Euro currency. This can actually make a significant difference to the price of your holiday. Let’s just take the UK as an example. Only six months ago the pound itself was struggling against what at the time was a strong Euro. In actual fact the currencies almost reached the parity level, i.e. 1 for 1. But now the Euro is struggling to hold its own. Currencies like Sterling are in the ascendancy and the current exchange rate illustrates this. At the time of writing this £1 will buy you approximately 1.26 Euros, that is a 25% increase on what it was just a few months ago! This of course means holidays in Spain and property here are that much cheaper. This is true not only of the pound sterling but of many other non-Euro currencies. All this means that the timing of the second runway being opened at Malaga airport is actually very opportune. A second runway will also elevate the prestigiousness of Malaga airport , taking it to the levels of Spain’s other league one airports such as Madrid (Barajas), Barcelona (El Prat), Gran Canaria, and Palma de Mallorca. In these tough economic times, there is no doubt that Malaga airport’s second runway can only have a significant, positive impact on the economy, not only for the local area but for the country as a whole. Image courtesy of Tony.Evans on Flickr.