AIRPORT authorities have been testing the facilities of the new third terminal at Malaga before the official opening on March 15 when King Juan Carlos will be the guest of honour.

Volunteers posed as travellers to test the check in systems of what will be the third busiest airport on the Spanish mainland.

The new terminal takes capacity up to 30 million passengers, some 9,000 an hour, although that is limited until the opening of the second runway next year. The new automatic baggage handling system can cope with 3,500 suitcases an hour. The 250,000 square metre terminal has 86 check in desks, 20 boarding gates, 12 of them with direct walkways to the planes.

The volunteers had to go through the complete process as if they were boarding a plane – finding their flight number on the display boards, checking in luggage and then passing through the security controls.

A total of 3,000 people will test the facilities and hopefully highlight any problems before the new terminal opens to the public. Ángel Gallego from AENA, the Spanish Airports Authority, said that the testing was important to show the infrastructure worked in practice, and noted that some new airports had paid the price for not carrying it out.

The opening of the T-3 will see the closure of T-1, currently used for some flights, to Melilla for example, and those travellers who arrive at T-2 will be taken on an automatic walkway to the new terminal once it has opened.

King Juan Carlos will be the guest of honour at the opening of the T-3 terminal at Malaga airport on March 15.

After taking four years to complete, top politicians and diplomats will be among 500 guests invited to the opening, according to the Ministry for Development.

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Testing Day At New Malaga Airport Terminal
Tuesday, 09 February 2010
AIRPORT authorities have been testing the facilities of the new third terminal at Malaga before the official opening on March 15 when King Juan...

© 2010 - Secret Andalucia - Guadiaro Valley, near Ronda

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