Malaga airport expected to receive a record-breaking 19 million visitors in 2017

Over 2 million visitors arrived in Malaga airport in July of this year, up by 11.2% to the month before. The nation's fourth largest airport received close to 16.7 million passengers last year, a rise of nearly 16% compared to 2016 and 7.2% of the total visitors to the country that year, only behind Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.

This year, visitor figures to the southern Spanish coastline is expected to hit a record-breaking 19 million by the end of 2017.

Ryanair is Malaga's leading airline, accounting for 3.83 million arrivals on 55 routes routes, followed by EasyJet, Vueling and Norwegian. This summer, Malaga airport provided links to 138 destinations, two of which are in North America (Montreal and New York JFK) five in Africa (Algiers, Casablanca, Melilla, Tangiers and Tindouf) and a variety of European destinations, including forthcoming direct flights to Prague and Helsinki and seasonal routes to Aarhus and Kristiansand.

Malaga airport's second terminal is also due to receive an 8.4 million euro upgrade. AENA announced today that they have opened bidding for a contract to renew the international hub and interested companies have until September 19th to present their proposals. The renovation will take 20 months to complete and will vastly improve the ability of the airport to sustain increasing levels of visitors per year.

Inaugurated in 1991, the expected remodelling of the second terminal will range from improved pavements and false ceilings, to the reinstallation of air-conditioning and fire-fighting facilities, as well as improvements to the toilet facilities.

AENA said in a statement: "The execution of these works, which will be programmed in such a way to affect as little as possible the normal operations of the airport, will mean an important improvement in the facilities of the T2 and will allow us to optimise the quality of the service that is provided to the passengers."

"It is an important moment of expansion in the activity of the airport, with an accumulated growth of 12.1% only in the first seven months of this year."

Alongside growing visitors to the region, the Spanish property market is benefiting from a steady growth in demand for property on the Costa del Sol. Booming tourism is providing lucrative opportunities for buy-to-let investors along the sunny southern tip of Spain and the continuous improvements to the infrastructure of Malaga airport is further proof that the Costa del Sol is as popular as ever, for tourists and property buyers alike.