Alex Trelinski
ALICANTE-ELCHE airport is easily on course to break the 2023 passenger record after setting an April best with nearly 1.6 million travellers- 10.8% more than a year earlier.
The first four months of 2024 has seen a cumulative total of 4.8 million passengers- up 18.5% on the same period in 2023.
The Costa Blanca airport also ran over 30,000 flights. an increase of over 15%.
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Last year’s record of 15.9 million million passengers is set to be smashed come November and December, with big monthly figures expected over the summer season.
The airport was the fifth-busiest in the country in April and had the highest year-on-year percentage growth.
Most of last month’s passengers were from abroad coming in at 1.3 million- up 10% on a year ago.
Once again, United Kingdom travellers accounted for over a third of April’s arrivals on 552,320, followed by the Netherlands(102,913) and Belgium(81,690).
There were 223,594 domestic passengers in April, representing an increase of 15.8%.
Last Friday, Spain’s Transport Minister, Oscar Puente, rejected calls for a second runway at Alicante-Elche airport- believing that a new second terminal can deal with rising passenger numbers.
Puente said that a second terminal will help the airport to cope with 26 million passengers per year, as opposed to the current number of just under 16 million.
“Alicante’s infrastructure is far from its potential, not because it has one runway, but because it has other growth possibilities,” he added.
Airport operator Aena will advertise a tender to expand Alicante-Elche airport towards the end of the year with a €600 million budget, following an April announcement of extra investment.
“We will provide a terminal, more routes, and more capacity which will allow operations to grow,” Oscar Puente said.
Puente also pointed out that London-Gatwick airport serves 35 million passengers each year with a single runway.
