Alex Trelinski
BUDGET air carrier easyJet will open a seasonal base at Alicante-Elche airport in 2024.
It will be the airline’s fourth base in Spain with the company saying it will create 100 new pilot and cabin crew jobs.
The airport will be home from spring 2024 to three A320 aircraft each with a capacity to carry 186 passengers.
Alicante-Elche joins two other seasonal bases at Malaga and Palma de Mallorca along with the all-year facility in Barcelona.
The company said Alicante-Elche was the airline’s most popular Spanish destination that did not have a base.
The operator first flew into Alicante in 1999 with a connection to London Stansted, and has transported 27.5 million to and from Alicante-Elche airport since then.
easyJet added that it plans to increase summer seat availability to Alicante by 16% compared to this year with a capacity of 1.62 million seats, which includes links to other European cities including Amsterdam and Geneva as well as British locations.
The Costa Blanca Tourist Board has criticised the lack of flights for UK travellers this summer as schedules were announced over a year ago when the Covid-19 pandemic was still an issue.
They’ve claimed that UK visitor numbers could fall by as much as 200,000 over the high summer season compared to 2019.
READ MORE:
- 200,000 fewer UK tourists predicted this summer compared to 2019 record levels on Spain’s Costa Blanca
- Airports smash April passenger records in Spain’s Costa Blanca and Valencia areas
- Blitz on pirate taxis operating at Costa Blanca airport in Spain
