Alex Trelinski
ALICANTE-ELCHE airport is gearing up for another record year for passengers by announcing its biggest-ever schedule of ‘high season’ flights.
The season runs between April 1 and October 31, with seven million seats available- 14% more than in the same period last year.
There will be almost 38,000 scheduled flights during the season- 13.3% more than in the same period of 2023- and spread over 234 routes that connecting the Costa Blanca with Europe and further afield.
The extended options come mainly from two leading budget airlines- Ryanair and EasyJet- boosting their services and opening bases at El Altet.
Benidorm mayor and Alicante Provincial Council president, Toni Perez, said the new routes ‘will allow see more travellers come to our province’.
“This consolidates the growth that is taking place year after year and shows that Alicante still has a lot to offer and a lot of capacity to grow,” added Perez.
EasyJet is opening nine new routes this spring connecting Alicante with Southampton, Newcastle, Belfast, Zurich Prague, Lyon, Lille, Nantes and Nice.
It means it has increased its seat availability by 10% to 1.5 million seats for the high season, offering 20 destinations.
Ryanair says that Alicante-Elche airport is the carrier’s fifth-most important facility in Spain and one of its 10 key European destinations, with the Irish company accounting for 40% of total air traffic at El Altet.
It will increase seats by nearly a million and operate nine new routes in the high season to Cardiff, Norwich, Munster, Rzeszow, Zagreb, Sofia and Barcelona, while restoring connections with Budapest and Lisbon.
Last month, the airport set a new February passenger record by welcoming just over a million travellers.
Over a third of the arrivals came from the United Kingdom, which dominated international users.
The total February figure was 1,002,310- up 26.8% than a year earlier and also helped by 2024 being a leap year with an extra day to factor in.
The first two months of 2024 has seen 1.9 million travellers- 23-6% more than in 2023, which ended up as record year with over 15.7 million people using the airport.
Alicante-Elche has also once again been recognised as the best airport in Europe that serves 15 to 25 million passengers.
The prestigious award for 2023 is given by the Airports Council International (ACI) and it means that Alicante has come top on four occasions in the last five years.
The award recognises excellence in service and the range of facilities and is given out by studying survey feedback from passengers using the Costa Blanca facility which had a record number of travellers last year.
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