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Malaga is the world’s first destination chosen by the British in January, according to a study published by the travel search engine Skyscanner Europe, based on the number of searches for cheap flights last month to departures from the UK.
According to the document, Spain dominates the classification of searches done in January and Malaga stands as a leader.

Four cities in the country followed in the top ten: Alicante ranks second, third Tenerife, Palma de Mallorca the fifth and Lanzarote the eighth. In this decade are also Faro (Portugal), London (United Kingdom), New York (USA), Dalaman (Turkey) and Amsterdam (Netherlands).
For Skyscanner, the presence of so many Spanish destinations in the top positions offers evidence that the sun and beaches remains a top priority for British travelers. However, the presence of flights to London, New York and Amsterdam indicate that remain regular trips to the big cities. The other Spanish cities among the 50 most wanted by the British are Barcelona, Murcia, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Fuerteventura and Gerona.

Within a few months will be operational the new passenger terminal T3 in the airport Malaga.
This massive building, designed by architect Bruce S. Fairbanks and covered by 117 pyramidal domes which are visible from outside the airport, is already being put to the test with 4.000 bags brought from Barcelona, where the served for testing the billing system in T1, and 3.000 extras who are playing the part of passengers arriving and leaving, in order to verify that everything works as it should.
It will be checked upon the clear signs to guide the travelers, if the security measures are sufficiently flexible or bags come in a timely fashion to the passenger. The idea is that this new terminal should be operational before the start of next Easter, beginning on March 28.

This terminal has 250.000 square meters and is divided into three parts: the processor building, the boarding area and transport exchanging area.
The processor building contains the check-in lobby of nearly 20.000 square metres. There will be 86 check-in counters; a large area of centralized security gives way to a shopping plaza in which passengers will walk before reaching the docks of embarkation. At about 18,000 square meters will be distributed 24 stores of leading brands and 21 restaurants and bars.

In this area will be present such prestigious brands as National Geographic, which will open its first store in an airport in the world, while Ferrari will have its second store in a national airfield. As for restoration, there will be options for every taste, from fast food from Burger King or Pizza Hut to La Moraga Airport, the new creation of Dani Garcia, awarded with the Michelin star, blending traditional cooking with the chef’s innovations.
From the T3 passengers can connect with the suburban railway station or bus station. Also under construction are two new exclusive access roads to the airport: one for the north, which will come from the new ring road west and another to the south, from the Mediterranean motorway N-340.
One year later, in late 2011, will start operating the second track, now under construction, which will have a peak performance of 74 flight operations per hour.

With all these enhancements, and after an investment of 1,400 million Euros, which will expand the airport surface of 135.000 square meters to 385.000, the airport will have capacity to serve 30 million passengers a year. However, as a consequence of the crisis, this facility has closed 2009 with only 11.6 million passengers, 9.3% less than in 2008, when it also experienced declines.
Despite these declines, some headlines point to optimism: Ryanair has already announced that, concurrent with the launch of the T3, the company will launch 19 new routes from Malaga.

Although the descent of the temperature differs a lot in comparison to other parts of Andalusia and the Spanish Peninsula, the coming weekend locals and visitors in Málaga will have to endure a sudden temperature drop between 6 and 8 degrees with chilly northern winds and minimum temperatures around 3ºC. The State Metrological Agency has activated today yellow alert (risk) for the whole province.
The rainstorm hitting Andalusia since last night provoked flooding in basements, streets and garages in Malaga city and neighboring villages and the closure of 23 community roads, the temporary interruption of the railway line between Sevilla and Huelva and the closure of the ski resort of Sierra Nevada due to wind gusts of over 120 miles per hour.
The airports belong as well to the weak points in the infrastructure where happened already setbacks, especially in Madrid Barajas, after the last snowfall. Currently, Madrid Barajas doesn´t record any incidents and all four runways are open. Nevertheless, strong snowfalls and temperatures below cero are expected for the next days, thus weather conditions can lead to delays.
As a positive aspect we can mention that the strong precipitations in Andalusia have left in several points more than 700 liters per square meter, which has allowed a spectacular advance of stocks in reservoirs.
The water stored in the reservoirs in the Mediterranean Basin composed of the provinces of Málaga, Almería, Granada and Cádiz guarantee the supply during 2010 and part of 2011.

The High Speed Train AVE comes back to normal after more than 40 hours of incidents
The service of the high speed train between Malaga and Madrid are completely restored now.

A strong storm had affected the railway lines close by Toledo and obliged their closure on Monday night. After more than 40 hours without the AVE Trains running as customary and people having to travel in Busses, the service is now fully reestablished. More than 22.000 travelers were affected by the incident. Although the journey can now be realized with normality, there are noticeable delays, due to a minor travel velocity at the affected point in Toledo.

The AVE customers were quite displeased, especially due to the lack of information about the sudden changes in their trajectories. Reacting to these complaints, the government will install a new system of information, notifying the passengers through their mobile phone about any incidence that might occur.

The City of Malaga is studying the prospect of installing Wi-Fi access around the city and has received a blow from Spain’s telecom governing body, the Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunications Market Commission). The proposal was to install access points inside municipal facilities with short-range access (30-100 meters), making this access limited to those physically present inside the buildings. It would consist of free and unlimited access to all city websites and limited general internet access, with security blocking against file-sharing programs. Those wishing to access the internet for mail, chat or other general-purpose browsing would have to request a time-limited username and password.

The Commission’s 8-page response includes some of the following:

• the requirement that the City of Malaga be registered as an operator, since they would be providing internet service via username/password
• providing free access would endanger the nature of open-market comptetition to a similar service
• limiting the offered service to accessing only municipal pages would not be prohibited, since this has an EU precedent from a similar request granted to the City of Prague

Nevertheless, Malaga’s mayor Francisco de la Torre is resisting the negative response and has committed to study out all possible legal possibilities of the initiative, determined to succeed. He mentioned another initiative that has begun called the WiMAX project, which would offer internet access for a cost, but which would greatly surpass the speed of simple Wi-Fi. (WiMAX is full-on broadband access using wireless radio frequencies.) WiMAX is emerging in other areas with test beds in cities such as Amsterdam (offered in the city’s centre for 20€ / month) and Portland, Oregon (USA), a key city in the international WiMAX Forum.

Discussion of a WiMAX solution brings to mind questions about the cost of new wireless cards and the feasibility for visitors, as this technology is too new for many consumers to have their laptops outfitted already. Of course, the mayor didn’t offer anything to assuage these issues. We can only assume those concerns will be addressed after a contract is signed.