Malaga Airline Lounge: AENA Sala VIP Europa
A short visit to the main lounge in Malaga Airport T3, AENA Sala VIP Europa. This lounge is used by all oneworld carriers at Malaga in addition to a range of other airlines. I used it rather early in the morning for a flight on Iberian regional affiliate and oneworld affiliate Air Nostrum.
I arrived early to a relatively empty terminal. The lounge is upstairs above the main departures concourse in an otherwise dead area.
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- Early morning quietness
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- Empty up here
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- Also empty over here
The front door is rather nondescript but inside is a genuinely decent offering and very large space. Maybe not up to the Iberia lounges however far better than a similarly large generic lounge in Madrid Airport.
It’s too early for me to have to think if this is a door
There is not so much a reception area but the desk is by the front door quickly followed by the main buffet area. From here it is a large expanse of seating with an inoffensive sprinkle of duty free shopping. Some lounges in Europe seem to be more cruise ship shop than airport departure lounge but in this case it seemed spot on. They seem to have a huge amount of space and I dread to imagine it anywhere near capacity. Fortunately, I visited it early in the morning before regional flight to Melilla to find it empty.
Empty lounge = sweet panorama
So plenty of seating and the seats closest to the door offered some views including the plane I was to depart on.
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- Seating
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- More Seating
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- A bit of a view
I had left the Holiday Inn Express airport hotel early in the hope for a better breakfast spread and was pleasantly surprised to find this third party lounge had a slightly better offering. It was however strictly a continental breakfast, with no hot items available. Beverages were available. One fridge with alcohol another with diary products.
Access in my case was through business class flights but my oneworld emerald or sapphire status, through Qantas and BA respectively, would have also provided access. I imagine it is also available through some paid basis along with fully flexible / business packages offered through some all-economy European carriers.
