Malaga Airport expansion in 2026: what the capacity work means for Costa del Sol property

Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport is running close to its 30-million-passenger ceiling, and Aena has committed roughly EUR 1.5 billion under its DORA III plan (2027 to 2031) to lift capacity to 36 million. The airport processed a record 26.76 million passengers in 2025, up 7.4 per cent on 2024, and broke its half-year record in June 2026 with 13.2 million passengers through the first six months. For a property buyer, the expansion matters because Málaga Airport channels 81.1 per cent of all foreign tourist arrivals to the region, and foreign buyers took 31.11 per cent of Málaga province home purchases in Q4 2025. More non-Schengen capacity and new long-haul routes widen the buyer pool that ultimately bids for Costa del Sol property.

How many passengers does Málaga Airport handle in 2026?

Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport closed 2025 with 26,760,549 passengers, a 7.4 per cent increase on 2024 and the highest annual figure in its history, according to Aena’s own 2025 traffic report. The airport handled 186,990 aircraft operations, up 6.9 per cent, and processed a record 6,255,861 checked bags. International traffic dominated: 22,248,605 passengers flew on international connections (up 7.8 per cent), while 4,465,870 travelled on domestic routes (up 5.5 per cent).

The UK remained the largest source market with 6,149,697 passengers in 2025, followed by Germany (2,012,019), the Netherlands (1,631,525), Italy (1,397,672) and France (1,386,610). The fastest-growing markets were the UAE (up 75.7 per cent), Iceland (up 59.2 per cent), Qatar and Egypt (both up 39 per cent), and the Czech Republic (up 32.4 per cent). These growth rates in Gulf and North African markets signal the diversification Aena’s DORA III expansion is designed to accommodate.

In the first half of 2026 the airport broke its January-to-June record with 13.2 million passengers, up 6.7 per cent on the same period in 2025, and 91,388 aircraft movements, up 4.5 per cent, according to Aena data reported on 14 July 2026. June alone saw 2,771,417 passengers aboard 19,038 flights, up 5.3 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively on June 2025. The month marked a new chapter in the airport’s 107-year history: for the first time, more than 100,000 passengers passed through in a single day, reached on both 26 and 28 June. Málaga consolidated its position as Spain’s fourth-busiest airport and the fastest-growing of the four major hubs, doubling the national network average growth rate.

The capacity stress is visible in punctuality figures. An Airhelp report covering January to June 2026, published on 30 July 2026, placed Málaga Airport’s on-time performance at 63 per cent, ranking 17th out of 28 Spanish airports. Of the nearly six million departing passengers in the first half, 2.1 million experienced delays. The national on-time rate fell from 79.1 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 63.3 per cent in the same period of 2026, reflecting the broader capacity strain that the DORA III expansion is designed to address.

What is the DORA III expansion plan for Málaga Airport?

DORA III is Aena’s Airport Regulation Document covering 2027 to 2031, the regulatory framework that governs investment and charges across Spain’s 46-airport network. Aena’s board approved the DORA III proposal on 17 February 2026 in an extraordinary meeting, proposing EUR 12,888 million in total network investment, of which EUR 9,991 million is regulated investment included in the document. For Málaga specifically, the expansion carries an approximate EUR 1.5 billion price tag and targets a capacity increase from 30 million to 36 million passengers per year.

The Council of Ministers is due to approve the final DORA III document by September 2026. The document must first clear the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the National Commission on Markets and Competition, and the Airport Coordination Committees of the autonomous communities. Aena framed the investment as a response to infrastructure stress: some major airports are nearly at the limits of their technical capacity, and until the works are completed, their growth will be restricted.

Málaga Airport expansion: confirmed capacity figures

Metric	Current	Post-expansion (target 2031)	Change
Annual passenger capacity	30 million	36 million	+20 per cent
Terminal floor area	80,000 m2	140,000 m2	+75 per cent
Departure passport control	Baseline	515 per cent larger	+515 per cent
Security screening area	Baseline	112 per cent larger	+112 per cent
Non-Schengen boarding area	Baseline	381 per cent larger	+381 per cent
Schengen flights area	Baseline	126 per cent larger	+126 per cent
Commercial and retail space	Baseline	41 per cent larger	+41 per cent
VIP lounge space	Baseline	43 per cent larger	+43 per cent
Project drafting contract	Pending	EUR 36.5m (Fairbanks/Sener/Cemosa)	Awarded May 2026
Project management contract	EUR 63.1m (halted Nov 2025)	EUR 63.1m (reopened Apr 2026)	Resumed April 2026

Source: Aena DORA III proposal (18 February 2026) and Sur in English reporting on Aena board approvals (July 2025, April 2026, May 2026).

The headline figure, a 6 million passenger uplift, understates the real gain. Aena’s technical sources explained that the binding constraint is not total annual throughput but peak-hour capacity in the most restrictive subsystem. Expanding security filters, passport control and gate count is what unblocks the whole airport at busy periods, not a simple floor area addition.

What infrastructure work is confirmed for Málaga Airport?

The confirmed works, drawn from Aena’s board-approved plans and the reopened April 2026 tender, include demolition of the disused T1 and the existing non-Schengen docks (Areas B and C), replaced by a new docking platform with centralised border control. Terminal surface area grows from 80,000 to approximately 140,000 square metres. New taxiways improve air traffic flow on the ground, and parking facilities expand. The runways themselves have sufficient capacity and are not being extended.

The EUR 63.1 million project management contract, reopened for bidding on 10 April 2026 after a November 2025 legal halt, covers five years of supervision, coordination and technical management. This consultancy role exists to ensure construction proceeds without disrupting daily operations at an airport that handled 26.7 million passengers in 2025 and 13.2 million in the first half of 2026 alone.

In May 2026, Aena awarded the project drafting contract to the team of Fairbanks Arquitectos, Sener Mobility and Cemosa, the same consortium that designed the current Terminal 3. They won against a runner-up joint venture of Viarium Ingenieria, Ayesa and Artelia Airports. Project drafting is expected to begin around summer 2026, with the environmental permitting process scheduled for 2028 and construction work starting towards the end of 2029.

A separate EUR 42 million investment in a new north access road from Málaga’s Hiperronda (the A-7/MA-30 loop) is in final design, with public consultation planned for the first half of 2026. The environmental report is favourable. This road project, separate from the airport works themselves, improves ground access and reduces the surface congestion that a larger airport would otherwise generate.

How does Málaga Airport expansion affect Costa del Sol property demand?

The link between airport capacity and property demand runs through the buyer pool. Málaga Airport processes 81.1 per cent of all foreign tourist arrivals to Andalusia, according to the Junta de Andalucía’s Ministry of Industry and Tourism data. Foreign buyers accounted for 31.11 per cent of Málaga province property transactions in Q4 2025, the third-highest provincial share in Spain behind Alicante (42.91 per cent) and the Balearic Islands (31.47 per cent), per the Colegio de Registradores’ Q4 2025 registry statistics. Nationally, foreign buyers reached a record 97,300 transactions in 2025, 13.8 per cent of all Spanish home sales.

The expansion targets the non-Schengen bottleneck specifically. The UK, Málaga’s largest source market with over 6.1 million passengers in 2025 and 678,479 in June 2026 alone, sits outside the Schengen area, which means every UK arrival and departure passes through passport control. A 515 per cent increase in departure passport control capacity directly addresses the constraint that limits growth in UK and other non-EU traffic. For property, the UK is also the largest single group of foreign buyers in Spain (7.93 per cent of foreign purchases in Q4 2025), so easing that bottleneck supports the buyer flow into Marbella rental yields and the wider coast.

New long-haul routes compound the effect. United Airlines operates the direct Newark to Málaga service (seasonal), and Turespain’s 2026 connectivity report confirms United now reaches six Spanish destinations including Málaga. The 2025 summer season connected Málaga to 156 destinations across 52 airlines on 259 routes, with almost 21 million seats, a 10 per cent increase on 2024. Faster-growing Gulf markets (UAE up 75.7 per cent, Qatar up 39 per cent) point to the Middle East buyer interest that the new non-Schengen docking platform is built to accommodate.

The Notariado’s May 2026 release adds further context. According to the Consejo General del Notariado, Spanish home sales fell 11.8 per cent year-on-year in May to 55,761 transactions, while the average price rose 8.8 per cent to EUR 2,049 per square metre. Mortgage lending also softened, with 54.8 per cent of purchases financed and an average loan of EUR 181,976 at a 72.5 per cent loan-to-value ratio. The divergence between rising prices and falling volumes signals affordability pressure, but the financing share and LTV suggest that funded demand remains intact, sustained in part by the connectivity that keeps the foreign buyer pool flowing.

Which Costa del Sol sub-markets benefit most from better connectivity?

The airport sits at the eastern end of the Costa del Sol, and the western sub-markets, Marbella and Estepona, are those where foreign buyer concentration is highest and where connectivity improvements matter most. The rental yield profile across Marbella runs roughly 3.5 to 6.5 per cent gross depending on area, and the investment case depends on a steady flow of UK and Northern European arrivals to sustain both the rental market and the resale buyer pool. Estepona golf property and the Mijas to Fuengirola corridor, covered in the Mijas and Fuengirola value guide, sit closer to the airport and benefit from shorter transfer times, a factor that weighs on holiday-let occupancy.

The Torremolinos zone nearest the airport, including Los Alamos, already commands premium asking prices partly on airport proximity. The expansion reinforces that corridor’s position as the first arrival point for international visitors, which supports both rental demand and the short-let market there. Further west, the benefit is less about transfer time and more about total route network: more direct flights from the Gulf and North America bring buyer cohorts that historically had to connect through Madrid or Barcelona.

What is the timeline and what remains unconfirmed?

Aena’s refined timeline, updated in May 2026, places project drafting through summer 2026, environmental permitting in 2028, and the start of construction towards the end of 2029, with the heaviest work falling under the DORA III regulatory period (2027 to 2031). The DORA III document itself must clear the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the National Commission on Markets and Competition, and the Airport Coordination Committees before the Council of Ministers approves it, due by September 2026 at the latest. Until that approval, the figures are Aena’s proposal, not a final budget.

What is confirmed: the EUR 63.1 million management contract is live, the project drafting contract has been awarded to Fairbanks Arquitectos, Sener Mobility and Cemosa, the functional study is complete, and the board has authorised the works. What is not confirmed: the exact phasing of construction, the final cost (EUR 1.5 billion is an estimate subject to DORA III approval), and whether a second airport or satellite facility will be needed after 2031. Aena’s experts told SUR that the DORA III expansion exhausts the airport’s available land: “This is as far as Málaga Airport can go.” Post-2031 growth would require the Airport City project in Alhaurín de la Torre, a second site at Antequera, or using Granada Airport as a satellite, all of which are proposals rather than committed plans.

What should a property investor take from this?

The expansion is a confirmed, board-approved infrastructure commitment backed by Aena’s own investment cycle, not a political aspiration. It addresses the specific bottleneck (non-Schengen capacity, dominated by UK traffic) that most directly affects the foreign buyer flow into Costa del Sol property. The 2025 record of 26.76 million passengers, the 13.2 million half-year figure in 2026, and the 81.1 per cent share of Andalusian foreign arrivals all establish that the demand base is already at capacity. The DORA III works ensure the airport can continue to absorb that demand rather than becoming a constraint on it.

For a buyer weighing the retirement and relocation decision, the expansion means the direct-flight network that makes the Costa del Sol accessible is set to widen, not shrink, over the 2027 to 2031 window. The Gulf and North American route growth, visible in the 2025 passenger data and reinforced by the 2026 half-year record, points to buyer cohorts beyond the traditional UK and Nordic markets. That diversification is what supports property demand resilience over the expansion period and beyond, as the Costa del Sol market report and the investment analysis make clear.