Private aircraft flight numbers take off during summer bringing more high-spending tourist

Source: RSS de noticias de Surinenglish

“Business aviation in Malaga is rocketing.” The phrase, from a technician at Malaga Airport, illustrates in a few words the situation that is being experienced this summer at the general aviation terminal. This facility has not stopped growing since the pandemic, with slight ups and downs, and this year it is approaching the record figures of the years immediately after Covid.

A total of 47 private aircraft on average touched down and took off at Malaga Airport each day in summer, according to new figures.

The 1,463 private flight operations in July is one of the highest figures for any airport in Spain, according to the data provided by industry sources. It’s a 40% increase compared to June this year; and 4% compared to the same period in 2023. Only 2021 and 2022 are higher, but this was due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Private flights now account for almost 8% of all flight operations on the two runways at Malaga Airport, which last July saw an average of 593 landings and take-offs each day.

And it is proving to be a successful summer for the business aviation sector. Aerodynamics Jets, a Malaga-based company specialising in the sector, has almost doubled its turnover and activity this summer. “We fly several times every day with all the planes, we do around 500 hours of flying per month,” its commercial director, Rafael Parodi, said.

The company recently added a new aircraft to its fleet, a Citation CJ3, which has increased range and capacity.

“There has been a big spike in our figures, and as the fleet has grown, so have the routes and turnover. As a result, Aerodynamics now offers four aircraft: a CJ1, two Mustangs and the CJ3,” the company said. “We can now reach destinations from Malaga that we were not able to reach before, such as the Greek islands (especially Mykonos), Turkey and Croatia.”

The rest of the more traditional demand remains the same: along with the Costa del Sol, the Balearic Islands and the rest of the Mediterranean islands, such as Corsica and Sicily.

The US and Middle East

There is an increase in the number of American and Arab clientele, according to the data. There are also many from the UK and the Nordic countries, while Russians, who were regulars before the war in Ukraine, are not as common in the private jets touching down at Malaga Airport.

Malaga-based iJet Aviation, based at the airport and capable of flying anywhere in the world, recently reached an agreement with Spanish manufacturer Crisalion to offer passenger drone flights along the Costa del Sol as well as other destinations.

IJet’s managing director, Javier Barriga, said that, although they experience significant growth every summer, “this year we have noticed it more”. He attributed it to the expansion of the luxury tourism sector in Marbella. “At iJet we have experienced a significant increase in clients, which has led us to double our own fleet,” he said.

In terms of nationalities, while the largest numbers come from Europe and the US, there has been a notable increase in tourists from the Middle East. “The trend continues to be upwards. Although the most common destination for private jet clients is Marbella, we are now noticing a growth in Malaga city, thanks to the business fabric that is being forged and the arrival of large technology corporations in the city,” Barriga said.

“We are at full capacity, this summer we have grown a lot compared to last year, we had already seen a rise, the traffic has been spectacular,” said Juan José Román, head of stopover at United Aviation and one of the managers of the Malaga terminal.

Destination: Marbella

The expert said the boom in business aviation is proportional to commercial aviation, which is breaking records this summer, with 2,659,290 passengers (+9.3%), and 18,399 operations (+6.2%) in July. “People want to come here, as soon as they set foot on the ground the first thing they say is: ‘Marbella’,” he said.

Román said there are many Americans and pointed out an increase in central and northern European citizens (Swiss, Scandinavians and British), which compensate for the loss of the Russians, who were once regular customers.

On the negative side, the situation is such that flight crews are sometimes unable to find available hotel rooms in Malaga city, especially at important times such as the last fair, and have to travel many kilometres to find accommodation for the night.

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