Flight Report : Malaga


Flight Report : FR 2591 Malaga - Valencia
Cheaper than a bus At EUR 21.60 all inclusive, flying was far cheaper than taking the bus. Malaga's airport is connected to the city by light rail. The trains are new and it took less than 15 minutes from the city centre.


The airport terminal is divided into the new and old sections. Ryanair uses the old section, which was a lengthy walk from the train station. Since I had checked in online and had no checked baggage, I skipped the counter line and went to the customer service counter to verify my passport details instead. All non-EU passengers need to go through this check, which seems to be a Ryanair-only thing. I never had to go through such a check with easyJet.


The airside area is new and looked modern and clean. There were some spotting opportunities with a great hillside backdrop.






Ryanair is starting to get quite strict with their cabin baggage policy. This was not surprising given it would cost a fortune to check a bag at the gate. I was one of the lucky ones who had to squeeze my hand-carry into the designated cabin baggage frame to make sure it would fit. After a little bit of maneuvering and the agent's lack of attention, I got through. Some others were not that lucky.



A good thing with vacationing in June is the abundant and long sunshine. The flight left just before 8pm but sunset was still nowhere in sight. Today's flight would take a little over an hour.















I believed the flight attendants were all Spanish. They were very friendly and meticulously made their announcements in both Spanish and English. But I didn't have too much time to pay attention to them when there was so much scenery outside. I saw quite a lot of windmills. I hope they would harvest solar power more going forward as well.



















Soon we started our descent into Valencia. We made quite a number of turns for the approach and I got some nice views of the city from the air. Too bad it was a little smoggy.





























We disembarked onto the airbridge, which was a surprise. Valencia's airport is old but it was still clean and tidy. As it was a domestic flight and I only had hand baggage, it was a quick exit towards the subway station.



I purposedly picked this late flight to arrive in Valencia before sunset. With transit connections at both origin and arrival airports, the flight experience was quite good. My alternative was a 12-hour bus ride at double the cost.