Alex Trelinski
VALENCIAN president Carlos Mazon has predicted that Alicante-Elche airport will close 2023 with a record number of 10 million foreign tourists.
The Valencian leader said the numbers add more strength to the argument for the airport to get a second runway to ‘continue growing’.
On a Tuesday visit to Alicante to attend UK budget carrier EasyJet’s presentation about their new base starting in 2024, Mazon said the prospects for the airport are excellent.
“We are very happy and very hopeful that the year-end numbers will be record figures for the airport- a historic figure,” Mazon emphasised.
The president pointed out that 2019 had been ‘the best’ year so far acting as a pre-Covid pandemic reference point.
He added that 2022 was a ‘very good’ year, but added that the figures for 2023 show that Alicante ‘has returned to win, not just to stay’.
“That means a great pride, but also a great challenge from the point of view of the destination and also from the point of view of the airport, which has to continue to grow. Our ability to improve is still underway and, therefore, our ability to make demands as well,” he stated.
Mazon pointed out that there is a master plan for the airport that has to be implemented and he is in contact with them to carry out what he described as going ‘to the next level’, with a second runway being ‘needed sooner rather than later’.
The Valencian leader also celebrated EasyJet establishing a base at Alicante-Elche, which he considers ‘demonstrates the level of welcoming capacity, quality response, hospitality and the happiness industry, which is tourism’.
“We have to keep going. We have decided to remove any stick from the wheel of tourism that there may be, such as the suppression of the tourist tax- a tax that should never have been approved and that we managed to prevent from coming into force.”
Mazon concluded by saying he was ‘absolutely convinced’ that 2023 is going to be a ‘record year’ for tourism.
“We continue with the extraordinary tourism ambition of the Valencian Community, but especially which the Costa Blanca deserves and will continue to have.”
