www.aena.es

Museum of Airports and Air Transport

On 13 November 1997, Málaga airport opened the Museum of Airports and Air Transport. This is the only collection of its kind in Spain, and one of very few in the world.

The Museum, intended to be a window onto the world of aviation and airports, is especially geared towards school students, but is also intended for aviation enthusiasts and everyone 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 in 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 elements relating to signalling, rescue, airport healthcare, ground mechanics, communications, electricity and electronics, etc. There is also a large variety 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 completed by panels explaining 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 pieces has been improved, with supports being built for engines and display cases, and all the pieces have been catalogued. Thanks to this work a complete database has been gathered of all the technical information of the more than 4,000 pieces in the exhibition.

Educational games have also been installed to help schoolchildren and other visitors to the museum to understand better how the world of air transport works.

<strong>Opening Hours of the Museum of Airports and Air Transport:</strong>

Mornings:

Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00 to 14.00.

Afternoons:

Tuesdays, 17.00 to 20.00.

Mondays

closed.

Closed on public holidays:

Easter Thursday and Friday, 24, 25, 31 December and 1 January.

School visits*:

Tuesdays to Fridays, 10:00 to 12:00.

Telephone numbers:

952 048 176 – 655 523 837

Email: <a href="mailto:agpmuseo@aena.es">agpmuseo@aena.es</a>

Related links:

• <a title="new window to the association of Friends of the Museum" rel="popup" href="http://www.aeroplaza.org/">Friends of the Aeroplaza (Association of Friends of the Museum of Airports and Air Transport of Málaga)</a>
• Cultural visits

* Request beforehand from the Director's Office (telephone 952 048 799)