Museum of Airports and Air Transport

Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport

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Exhibition hall
Museum of Airports and Air Transport
Cultural tours

Culture

On 13th November 1997, the Málaga-Costa del Sol airport opened the Museo de Aeropuertos y Transporte Aéreo (Airports and Air Transport Museum). It is currently the only exhibition of its type in Spain, and one of the few that can be seen in the world.

The Museum, intended to be a window onto the world of aviation and airports, is especially geared towards school students, but it is also intended for aviation enthusiasts and anyone who is curious about air transport and would like to find out more about it.

The Museum has over 1500 m2 of exhibition space. A striking exhibit is the first passenger Terminal of Malaga airport, with the original 1939 design by the architect Luis Gutiérrez Soto. Since February 2009, the Terminal used by passengers to Malaga from 1948 to 1968 has been part of the Museum. Its interior reflects a city which saw its future development in tourism, the luxury of flight in the 1950s, and the air navigation of the period in its historic control tower, and so on. The exhibition is completed by an aeroplane in its gardens, the Convair 440, which brought the first tourists by charter in 1959.

The Museum has more than 4,000 pieces relating to the history of airports and aviation, from various parts of Spain, such as Seville, Córdoba, La Palma, Lanzarote, La Coruña, Palma de Mallorca, and Huesca, which have been restored in the airport itself. All of them show the visitor the enormous diversity and complexity of the activities which make up air transport, and which take place at airports.

The main aim of the Museum is to show visitors the enormous evolution of air transport in the 20th century and its fundamental importance in the development of tourism, especially in places like Málaga and the Costa del Sol.

The galleries show pieces, equipment and components relating to signalling, rescue, airport healthcare, ground mechanics, communications, electricity and electronics, etc. There is also a wide range of posters for aviation companies from all periods, models, avionics equipment, crew uniforms and equipment used for animal control or administrative activities. The exhibition is furnished with explanatory panels showing the basics of air navigation, various plane parts, engines, etc.

One of the stars of the exhibition is a very rare pilot's mask from 1916, which belonged to the famous Jorge Loring, and the original stamps of Colón Transaérea, a Spanish company which in the 1920s tried to establish a line of airships between Seville and Buenos Aires. As a complement to the Museum, in the rear courtyards there is a display of a DC3, a Beechcraft, a Convair 440 and the cabin of a DC9, which visitors can enter.

As part of the Aena Foundation's programme in the Museum, the presentation of the parts has been improved, with supports being built for engines and display cases, and all the pieces have been catalogued. This work has enabled a complete database to be compiled containing the technical details of the entire collection, amounting to over 4,000 exhibits.

Interactive educational games have also been installed to encourage school children and other visitors to the museum to gain an insight into the world of air transport.

Airports and Air Transport Museum opening hours:

Mornings:: From Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
Evenings:: Tuesday, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
Sunday and Monday: Closed.
Closed on public holidays:: Easter Thursday and Good Friday, 24, 25, 31 December and 1 January. Closed from 10 June to 10 July.
School visits*:: Tuesdays to Fridays, 10:00 am to 12:30 pm.
Contact telephones:: 952 048 176

E-mail: agpmuseo@aena.es

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