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| Malaga (AGP) is one of Spain's busiest airports. |
Malaga Airport - Seven Fascinating Facts
In reality, Málaga airport is full of fascinating facts and you won’t regret reading up on the history of this interesting airport. These seven facts will surely whet your appetite for more:
Fact One: The real reason behind Málaga Airport’s current location is the weather. Thanks to two rainy days, the first planes couldn’t land in the area originally destined for the airport. Read more.
Fact Two: Málaga Airport is Spain’s fourth most important airport after Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.
Fact Three: The Málaga Airport’s original terminal (and the tiny air traffic control “tower”) is still intact and just waiting for your visit! Just go to the airport museum and you are in for a treat.
Fact Four: In 1936 Málaga Airport became a military airbase for use during the Spanish Civil War. Today the airbase is located to the west of the Málaga Airport but can still use the airport runways.
Fact Five: Spanish Queen Sophia and King Juan Carlos inaugurated the spectacular new Terminal 3 on March 15, 2010.
Fact Six: AGP - The three letter IATA (International Air Transport Association) Airport code AGP for Malaga airport appears unrelated to the city name. Due to the large number of codes issued and perhaps a reluctance to assign a negative word in Spanish MAL was assigned to Mangole Island Airport, Maluku, Indonesia, and the 4th and 5th letters of Malaga were chosen plus an available letter working backwards from the alphabet. Following the official rename of the airport to “Malaga-Costa del Sol” in 2011 AENA has requested the recoding of the airport to SOL (which is unallocated). Code changes are rare but not unprecedented New York's JFK airport was previously IDL for Idlewild Airport.
Fact Seven: Concorde visited Malaga airport for the first time on 5th December 1985 and departed the following day. Concorde registration G-BOAA departed LHR 09.42 arrived AGP 12.40, returning departed AGP 21.04 arr LHR 21.53. (local times). British Airways brought celebrities for the Peter Allis / Concorde Golf Classic, a charity golf tournament and gala dinner at Los Monteros Hotel in Marbella. Present were Peter Allis, Nicholas Parsons, Richard O'Sullivan, Tony Jacklin, Bryn Phillips, James Bowlem, Dannny Blanchflower, Jimmy Hill, Bobby Robson, Trevor Booking, Cliff Michelmore, Ronan Rafferty and the Duke of Marlborough. On the day Concorde stayed over in AGP, British Airways arranged for visitors to the aircraft, who made a donation to a local charity. The visitors were issued with 'boarding passes', bussed to the rear steps, walked forward through the cabin, looked into the flight deck, and finally disembarked down the forward steps to be bussed back to the terminal.
 Concorde Golf Classic Gala Dinner - signed menu. © Robert Hill |
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The second visit was by both British Airways and Air France who brought golf enthusiasts to the Ryder Cup at Valderrama on the 23 to 29 September 1997.
