Malaga Airport to the City, the Costa del Sol and Marbella: What Each Option Costs

The train from Malaga airport into the city costs 1.80 euros and takes 12 minutes. The bus costs 4 euros and takes longer. There is no train to Marbella and there never has been, so that trip is a 6.48 euro bus or a metered taxi. This page sets out what every option costs, checked against Aena, Avanza and the Andalusian transport consortium in September 2026.

What each option costs

The train

The C-1 Cercanias line runs from Malaga Centro-Alameda through the airport down the coast to Fuengirola. The station is underground, next to Terminal 3, about two to three minutes’ walk from T3 arrivals. There is no shuttle and no separate ticket for the airport.

Aena’s own journey times from the airport are 8 minutes to Maria Zambrano, 12 to Centro-Alameda, 18 to Benalmadena and 34 to Fuengirola. Trains come about every 20 minutes for most of the day.

Fares are zonal: 1.80 euros for one or two zones, 2.05 for three, 2.70 for four and 3.60 for five. The airport to Centro-Alameda is 1.80, confirmed by several sources.

The airport to Fuengirola fare is disputed. Three sources give 2.05, 2.70 and 3.60. The 2.70 four zone figure is the best supported. Renfe’s own fare table is not published in a form we could read, so treat it as unconfirmed.

We also could not confirm the first and last trains for 2026. The secondary figures we found are on a page that states its timetables were valid only until the end of 2025.

The bus into Malaga

The EMT line A express costs 4 euros, paid in cash or by card on board, with luggage free. It picks up on Floor 0, arrivals, opposite the transport interchange.

A note if you have a local transport card. The consortium’s own tariff table, in force from 15 July to 31 December 2026, still shows 4 euros with the card. There is no discount on this line.

Spanish Wikipedia still says 3 euros. Aena and the consortium both say 4.

Journey time is 15 to 25 minutes depending on traffic and buses come every 20 to 35 minutes. We could not confirm the first and last departures or the exact city terminus, because the operator’s own site blocks automated access and the secondary sources contradict each other. One says 07:00 to 01:15, another describes the line as running 24 hours with scheduled night trips.

For the city centre the train is cheaper and faster. The bus wins only if Paseo del Parque suits you better than Centro-Alameda.

Marbella and the coast west

There is no train to Marbella. The C-1 ends at Fuengirola. Aena’s own train page describes the line that way.

Avanza runs the coach services from Terminal 3 arrivals. These fares took effect on 1 June 2026.

Avanza also sells multimedia and expres fares on some routes at 8.70 and 9.30 euros to Marbella, which do not accept consortium discount cards.

Eleven lines call at the airport and the overall service span is 07:45 to 23:00, seven days. Avanza publishes per line frequencies and first and last departures only in individual timetables we did not retrieve.

Note what is not on Avanza’s airport list: Fuengirola, Torremolinos and Benalmadena. Those are train destinations.

Taxis, which are metered

There is no flat airport fare at Malaga. Aena publishes tariffs, not destination prices.

A third band applies on late nights at weekends and holidays and on special dates, with a 24.93 euro minimum, a 2.50 flag and 1.38 a kilometre.

Supplements are 56 cents a piece of luggage, 2.15 euros for night service between midnight and 6am, and 2.70 for an adapted vehicle carrying five or more.

The airport supplement is 6.27 euros and it is worth reading the wording. It is stated as applying to journeys with the airport as the destination. Coming out of the airport you instead start at the elevated minimum charge.

We could not find any official or indicative total to Malaga centre, Torremolinos, Fuengirola or Marbella. You can compute one from the table, but that is arithmetic rather than a published fare, and the coastal towns are outside the Malaga municipal area where interurban rules apply.

The rank is on Floor 0, arrivals. Two operators are authorised, Taxi Union and Unitaxi.

Uber and Bolt, but not Cabify

Aena runs a dedicated private hire page for this airport and it lists exactly two operators.

• Uber picks up at the priority car park, Terminal 3, Floor 0.
• Bolt picks up at the arrivals car park, Floor 0.

Cabify is not listed. Whether it serves the airport at all we could not establish, because its own city pages returned errors.

Neither operator publishes fares, so estimates are in the app only. And neither uses the taxi rank. Standing at the rank with an Uber booked is the standard mistake here.

Renting a car, and the road that costs money

The rental desks are in the basement of Terminal 2, on airport, walk in, with no shuttle. Eight companies operate there including Avis, Budget, Europcar, Goldcar, Hertz, Record Go, Sixt and OK.

Aena publishes no airport surcharge figure for rentals, so we will not quote a percentage.

The thing that catches drivers is the road. Two parallel routes run the coast west of Malaga. The A-7 is free. The AP-7, the Autopista del Sol, is tolled. Satnavs pick whichever is faster and will route you onto the toll road without saying so.

These are the light vehicle tolls, VAT included, in force since 18 December 2025.

High season means June, July, August and September, plus 17 days around Easter. So a summer drive from Malaga to Marbella on the AP-7 costs 9.25 euros for the Calahonda section, about 62 percent more than the rest of the year, on a route the free A-7 also covers.

That is the one summer effect on this page that is documented. It is financial, not a delay.

What we could not confirm

First and last trains on the C-1 for 2026. Renfe’s timetable pages block automated access.

The airport to Fuengirola train fare, given as 2.05, 2.70 and 3.60 by three sources.

Line A’s first and last bus, its frequency and its city terminus. The operator’s site is blocked and the secondary sources conflict.

Taxi totals to any destination. None is published anywhere official.

Whether Cabify operates at this airport.

Rental car airport surcharges on the bill.

Summer congestion journey times on the A-7 and AP-7. No official source publishes them, so we are not inventing a multiplier.

Sources

• Aena Malaga, trains
• Aena Malaga, buses
• Aena Malaga, taxi tariffs
• Aena Malaga, private hire operators and pickup points
• Aena Malaga, car hire
• Avanza, airport destinations and fares
• Malaga transport consortium, fares
• Autopista del Sol, AP-7 tolls