In Transit

Malaga (Spain) to Abu Dhabi (UAE)

K had read about the difficulties travellers had been experiencing at Málaga airport since Brexit. The British can no longer just waltz through immigration as EU citizens, so Málaga airport has been struggling with immigration lines taking up to three hours. This results in people missing their flights, and the issue is compounded by the increase in summer flights and the volume of tourists arriving into the Costa del Sol.

Our flight to Abu Dhabi wasn't due to leave until 10.15am and we were running a little behind as our Uber had to come from the city to pick us up. When we arrived at the airport we could see the queues for all the British flights but fortunately our line was short. K had read immigration only had two officers on duty so we were lucky we were ahead of the rush. 

Málaga airport is old and bursting at the seams, and we all gathered at a small gate with limited seating. We waited, waited and waited some more, with no information provided or announcements made regarding the delay, and concerningly no sight of an aircraft either. 

We were finally ushered down ramps to wait for buses about an hour past boarding time, only to have to wait standing in a giant queue on the ramp for another forty or so minutes, where of course there was no air-conditioning or seats. Once we finally boarded we had to wait even longer on the tarmac until the plane could receive a tow. We left two hours late and discovered that this flight had a history of leaving late, for at least the last three departures.

Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi is a huge and busy futuristic complex and an important stopover location. Many people on our flight missed their connections, but we were fine as we had booked a hotel on airside/transit which meant we didn't have to deal with immigration or luggage and only had our hand luggage. We would have liked to have spent a couple of days in the city but with daily temperatures over 40 degrees we decided this time to give it a skip. The hotel sells the rooms in 6 and 12 hour sessions, perfect for a sleep and a shower. It did feel strange wandering around the airport without any bags as we found somewhere for dinner, it felt more like we were in a shopping centre than an airport!