Grand Opening Of Terminal 3 At Malaga Airport
March 15th is the date set for the grand opening of the new Terminal 3 at Malaga Airport(AGP) and no less than King Juan Carlos himself is to be the guest of honour. Four years in the construction, the new 250,000 square metre terminal will allow the airport to double its current capacity to 9,000 passengers per hour, and will house 86 check-in desks and 20 boarding gates, as well as a variety of shops, bars and restaurants. In addition, plans are already in place for a second runway to be built in 2011.
The Spanish Ministry for Development has reported that some 500 guests, including many top politicians and dignitaries, will be present at the unveiling, but in the meantime members of the public have been testing the facilities in advance of the public opening before Easter. In all, the testing will involve some 3,000 volunteers who will be vital in ensuring that everything works as planned before the terminal goes live. Just as though they were boarding a real flight, the volunteers are each having to go through the entire arrivals and departures process from finding their flight numbers on the display boards and checking in their luggage to passing through security and finding the correct airport parking area, in an effort to identify and fix any problems in advance.
Once the new terminal is officially opened, it is expected that airlines will include more and more new routes in and out of what has already proved to be an extremely popular airport. In the last two years alone, a total of 39 new routes have been added, including direct flights to and from Toronto and Montreal which have led to an increase of 40% in the number of Canadian tourists in the area. Aer Lingus is just one of the companies which intends increasing its number of places to the Costa del Sol.
