How Spain's one-network model helps Malaga take off

Spanish regional airports thrive within single network that aligns national operator, airlines, local governments

Korea Herald correspondent

MALAGA, Spain — At Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport in southern Spain, travelers move with the ease of commuters passing through a well-run railway station — local in character despite the constant stream of international arrivals.

The gateway to the Costa del Sol ranks as Spain's fourth-busiest airport, after Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, with passenger traffic more than doubling over the past decade to top 25 million travelers in 2025.

Airport officials trace much of the airport's growth to Aena, Spain's national airport operator, which has long prioritized investment before capacity constraints emerge. Malaga, they say, illustrates what a single-operator model can achieve when a regional gateway expands as part of a broader network.

"If we wait until demand reaches its limit, we're already too late," Juan Manuel Cordoves, chief of staff at Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport, told a Korean delegation during a visit to the airport on June 26. "The goal is not to expand once growth has arrived, but to invest ahead of future demand.”

Under the so-called Malaga Plan, Aena completed Terminal 3 in 2010 and opened a second runway two years later, thereby creating room for low-cost carriers to expand and helping the airport absorb a subsequent surge in tourism.

Today, the airport handles 58 airlines and 276 routes, including 243 international connections. Tourism accounts for roughly 65 percent of passenger traffic.

Key to that expansion was close coordination among the operator, local governments and airlines, according to Aena. Aena supplied infrastructure, incentives and marketing; local governments built out tourism offerings and promoted regional brands; airlines brought new routes and joint campaigns.

For instance, Aena does not tender concessions one airport at a time. Instead, it packages major gateways and smaller destinations together, using the scale of its network to attract operators and spread investment more broadly across the country.

The same principle applies to passenger services. Through its "Sin Barreras" program, Aena provides standardized assistance for travelers with reduced mobility across its entire network at no additional cost. Technologies tested at larger hubs, including autonomous mobility devices, can eventually roll out systemwide, letting smaller airports benefit from innovations developed elsewhere.

"We coordinate with the destination airport so that passengers with reduced mobility can continue their journey seamlessly after arrival," said Luis Triana, management director of Terminal 4 at Madrid-Barajas Airport. "Information is shared in advance so that assistance, immigration procedures and onward transportation can all be arranged before the traveler lands."

Malaga is already preparing for its next phase of growth, with Aena planning to enlarge security areas, add boarding gates and expand commercial space over the next five years.

Spain's model stands in sharp contrast to how Korea manages its regional airports.

Korea Airports Corp., which manages 14 airports apart from Incheon Airport, continues to rely on profits from Gimpo, Jeju Island and Gimhae to offset losses at smaller regional facilities. Incheon, the country's largest gateway and a key source of aviation demand, remains outside that framework.

Although KAC has experimented with a network-based approach by bundling commercial concessions across major and regional airports, the initiative attracted only modest interest from private operators.

Nationwide procurement has remained largely confined to areas such as security equipment and other shared services.

"What stands out in Spain's case is that airports maintain the same standards of safety and service, infrastructure is expanded before demand exceeds capacity, and the operator can leverage the strength of the entire network," a KAC official said.

"We hope to learn from Aena's model of long-term, stable infrastructure investment as we work to improve the management of regional airports," the official added.