Alicante–Elche Airport

Alicante–Elche Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche, Valencian: Aeroport d'Alacant-Elx), (IATA: ALC, ICAO: LEAL), originally named El Altet, is —as of 2019— the fifth-busiest airport in Spain[4] based on passenger numbers, and the main airport serving the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia. The airport is located in the municipality of Elche, about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) east of this city and about 9 km (5.6 mi) southwest of Alicante. Its influence area spans other cities in the Valencia province—the city of Valencia is located about 160 km (99 mi) north of the airport—and in the Region of Murcia. The airport is located about 70 km (43 mi) north of Murcia.

Alicante–Elche Airport Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche Aeroport d'Alacant-Elx
IATA: ALC ICAO: LEAL
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	ENAIRE
Operator	Aena
Serves	Province of Alicante
Location	Elche (Alicante)
Focus city for	Ryanair
Elevation AMSL	43 m / 141 ft
Coordinates	38°16′56″N 00°33′29″W
Website	aena.es
Map
ALC Location within Spain
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 10/28 3,000 9,842 Asphalt / Concrete
Statistics (2019)
Passengers 15,047,840 Passenger change 18–19 7.6% Aircraft Movements 101,408 Movements change 18–19 4.8%
Sources: Passenger Traffic, AENA;[1] Spanish AIP, AENA[2][3]

The airport is a base for Air Nostrum, Jet2.com, Norwegian Air International, Ryanair and Vueling. Passenger traffic has increased significantly in the last decade, beating its own yearly record since 2013 to date; in 2019 it set its new consecutive record at 15 million passengers. It is one of the 50 busiest in Europe. Up to 80% of all passenger flights are international.[4] The largest numbers of passengers arrive from the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Sweden.[5] Popular domestic destinations are Madrid, Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona.

History

Alicante Airport in 1972

El Altet airport opened on 4 May 1967, replacing the older aerodrome La Rabassa that had served Alicante since 1936. It took its name after the El Altet area (a part of Elche's countryside) where it was built. The first commercial flight that landed in the airport was Convair Metropolitan by Aviaco.[6] Iberia established a regular connections Alicante–Madrid and Alicante–Barcelona in November 1969.[7] In early 1970s passengers' traffic reached 1 million, which prompted a construction of a new passenger terminal. In 1980 the runway was extended to three kilometres.[6]

The next renovation took place during the 1990s.[7] A new office building together with operation and business centres were constructed. For the first time, five air bridges were installed to facilitate boarding.[7]

In 2011, the new terminal was opened at the airport increasing the annual airport capacity to 20 million passengers per year.[8] All flights arrive and depart from this new terminal. Terminals 1 and 2, which were in service before the opening of the new terminal, are currently closed. Works however will not be completed until 2014, as plans are to construct a connecting hallway between the new terminal and terminals 1 and 2 that will allow to exploit the passenger space of all terminals.[9]

Historically, up until 2003, Iberia was the leading airline at the airport.[10] With the decline of conventional airlines, in 2004 low-cost EasyJet took the lead.[10] In 2007, Ryanair, the largest European low-cost airline established a base in Alicante.[11] It has become the leading carrier at the airport in 2009, and by 2011 it has increased its presence further with eleven aircraft based, 62 routes, and more than 3 million passengers. However, from the end of October 2011, Ryanair has cut 31 routes due to disagreement with AENA on the usage of air bridges at the new terminal (before, they would always unload on the tarmac because it is cheaper and the dual door boarding thus enabled quicker turnaround times but the owners of the airport want all planes to use the air bridges in the new building and not unload on the tarmac).[12]

The airport is located within Elche's comarca and so there had been a historical petition from Elche to include the city's name in the official name of the airport. On 12 July 2013, the name of the airport was officially changed from "Alicante Airport" to "Alicante–Elche Airport"[13] with the IATA airport code remaining unchanged, ALC.

In 2015, the number of passengers increased by 5,1% to 10,574,484. The passenger traffic has increased in every year since 2000, with the exception of 2009 and 2012. By 2015 the largest number of passengers was carried by Ryanair (2,992,984), followed by EasyJet (1,285,221) and Vueling (1,093,494). Norwegian Air Shuttle (893,319) is the "distant" four.[1][14]

On 23 July 2016 the airport registered its busiest day to date, handling 347 flights—with an average of one flight every 3 minutes—and about 58,000 passengers in a single day.[15] On 15 January 2020, it was reported that a huge fire had broken out in an office inside the terminal building. The building was evacuated and flights delayed.

Terminals

Interior of the new terminal

Terminal N is the only terminal currently in service. Terminals 1 and 2 have been closed since the opening of Terminal N in 2011.

Terminal N

Terminal N was officially opened on 23 March 2011. All flight operations at the airport were moved to this terminal on the following day. The first flight to depart from Terminal N was a Ryanair flight to Memmingen. The terminal has an area of 333,500 square metres (3,590,000 sq ft), which is more than six times the size of terminals 1 and 2 together. It includes 96 check-in desks, 40 gates, including 15 with airbridges, and 16 baggage reclaim carousels.[16] The terminal is split into two areas, the processor where the C Gates are held, and the dock where the majority of B Gates are located. Flights within the Schengen Area use both areas of the terminal while flights to non-Schengen destinations only use the dock. This terminal was constructed to the east of Terminal 1.

Former Terminal 1

Terminal 1 (styled as T1) had 38 check-in desks numbered 1–38, along with one for special baggage which is desk number 39. It included 11 gates of which five have airbridges, which were the odd-numbered gates, and nine baggage reclaim carousels. It was closed after the opening of Terminal N on 24 March 2011. There are plans to reopen Terminal 1 in the future, which would require the construction of a connecting walkway with the current terminal, as both terminals are currently unconnected.[9]

Former Terminal 2

Terminal 2 (styled as T2) had 14 check-in desks numbered 51–64, six gates (none with airbridges), and two baggage reclaim carousels. This terminal is adjacent to Terminal 1. The terminal was opened in January 2007. Prior to the opening of the new terminal whilst it was still active it was the smaller of the two terminals. Once Terminal N had opened on 24 March 2011, it was closed together with Terminal 1. Terminal 2 now handles General Aviation and will also soon be partially converted into a new overseas Headquarters for Jet2.com.[17]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Aer Lingus	Seasonal: Cork, Dublin
Aeroflot	Moscow–Sheremetyevo[18][19]
Air Algérie	Algiers, Oran, Tlemcen
Air Europa	Madrid, Palma de Mallorca Seasonal: Tenerife–North
Air France	Paris–Charles de Gaulle[20]
Atlantic Airways	Seasonal charter: Vágar[21]
Belavia	Seasonal: Minsk
British Airways	London–Heathrow Seasonal: Manchester Seasonal charter: Edinburgh, Glasgow
Brussels Airlines	Brussels
easyJet	Amsterdam, Belfast–International, Berlin–Tegel, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, London–Southend (ends 31 August 2020), Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne (ends 31 August 2020) Seasonal: Milan–Malpensa
easyJet Switzerland	Basel/Mulhouse, Geneva
Eurowings	Düsseldorf, Stuttgart
Finnair	Helsinki[22]
Iberia Regional	Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca Seasonal: A Coruña, Tenerife–North, Vigo[23]
Icelandair	Seasonal charter: Reykjavík–Keflavík
Jet2.com	Belfast–International, Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
KLM	Amsterdam
LOT Polish Airlines	Seasonal: Warsaw–Chopin[24]
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich
Neos	Seasonal: Reykjavík–Keflavík
Norwegian Air International	Ålesund, Bergen, Billund, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Hamburg,[25] Helsinki, Munich, Oslo, Reykjavík–Keflavík, Sandefjord, Stavanger, Stockholm–Arlanda, Tenerife–North, Trondheim Seasonal: Aalborg, Harstad/Narvik, Tromsø
Ryanair	Aberdeen, Beauvais, Belfast–International, Bergamo, Berlin–Schönefeld, Berlin–Tegel, Billund, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bologna, Bremen, Bristol, Brussels, Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin, Düsseldorf, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Exeter, Frankfurt, Gdańsk, Glasgow, Glasgow–Prestwick, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Haugesund, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Kaunas, Kraków, Leeds, Liverpool, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, London–Stansted, London–Southend, Maastricht/Aachen, Manchester, Marseille, Memmingen, Milan–Malpensa, Munich, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newquay, Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Poznań, Rome–Fiumicino, Santiago de Compostela, Sandefjord, Seville, Shannon, Stockholm–Skavsta, Toulouse, Vienna,[26] Warsaw–Modlin, Weeze, Wrocław Seasonal: Bordeaux, Cagliari, Kerry, Knock, Pardubice, Nuremberg, Stockholm–Västerås, Växjö
S7 Airlines	Moscow–Domodedovo
Scandinavian Airlines	Bodø, Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm–Arlanda Seasonal: Aarhus,[27] Bergen, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Kristiansand, Trondheim
SkyUp	Kiev–Boryspil
Swiss International Air Lines	Seasonal: Geneva,[28] Zürich[29]
TAP Air Portugal	Lisbon
TAROM	Seasonal: Bucharest
Transavia	Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Rotterdam
Transavia France	Paris–Orly
TUI Airways	Birmingham, Cardiff, Doncaster/Sheffield, East Midlands, Glasgow, London–Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne Seasonal: Bristol
TUI fly Belgium	Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi, Liège, Ostend/Bruges
Ukraine International Airlines	Seasonal: Ivano-Frankivsk
Volotea	Asturias, Bilbao Seasonal: Bordeaux, Ibiza,[30] Luxembourg,[31] Lyon, Menorca,[30] Nantes, Naples, Palma de Mallorca,[30] Venice
Vueling	Algiers, Amsterdam, Asturias, Barcelona, Bilbao, Brussels, Cardiff, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, London–Gatwick, Milan–Malpensa, Oran, Palma de Mallorca, Paris–Orly, Rome–Fiumicino, Tenerife–North, Zürich Seasonal: Lanzarote, Menorca
Wizz Air	Bucharest, Budapest, Cluj-Napoca, Sofia, Vienna Seasonal: Warsaw–Chopin
Wizz Air UK	Doncaster-Sheffield (begins 22 October 2020),[32] London-Luton (begins 31 August 2020)[33]

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Swiftair/DHL Aviation	Vitoria

Statistics

Passengers and movements

Alicante Airport Passenger Totals 2000–2019 (millions)

Updated: 19 June 2020.[1]

	Passengers	Aircraft movements	Cargo (tonnes)
2000	6,038,266	56,427	7,745
2001	6,542,121	56,550	7,923
2002	7,010,322	59,268	6,548
2003	8,195,454	66,571	5,848
2004	8,571,144	71,387	6,036
2005	8,795,705	76,109	5,193
2006	8,893,720	76,813	4,931
2007	9,120,631	79,756	4,533
2008	9,578,304	81,097	5,982
2009	9,139,607	74,281	3,199
2010	9,382,935	74,474	3,112
2011	9,913,764	75,572	3,011
2012	8,855,764	62,468	2,527
2013	9,638,835	68,305	2,589
2014	10,066,067	71,571	2,637
2015	10,575,288	74,086	3,587
2016	12,344,945	87,113	5,461
2017	13,706,513	89,527	5,040
2018	13,981,320	96,734	4,013
2019	15,047,840	101,408	4,032
Source: Aena Statistics[1]

Busiest routes

Busiest Routes from Alicante–Elche Airport, January–December 2019

Rank	Country	Passengers	Top Carriers
1	London Gatwick, United Kingdom	892,138	British Airways, EasyJet, Norwegian, Ryanair Group, TUI Group, Vueling
2	Manchester, United Kingdom	745,827	EasyJet, Jet2, Ryanair Group, TUI Group, Thomas Cook
3	Barcelona, Spain	448,546	Vueling
4	Amsterdam, Netherlands	436,483	EasyJet, KLM, Vueling
5	Brussels, Belgium	412,949	Lufthansa Group, Ryanair Group, TUI Group, Vueling
6	Birmingham, United Kingdom	409,468	Jet2, Ryanair Group, TUI Group
7	East Midlands, United Kingdom	403,673	Jet2, TUI Group, Ryanair Group
8	Oslo, Norway	381,664	Norwegian, SAS
9	Newcastle, United Kingdom	378,070	EasyJet, Jet2, Ryanair Group, TUI Group
10	London Stansted, United Kingdom	372,824	Jet2, Ryanair Group
11	Bristol, United Kingdom	367,353	EasyJet, Ryanair Group, TUI Group
12	Leeds Bradford, United Kingdom	330,331	Jet2, Ryanair Group
13	Luton, United Kingdom	317,087	EasyJet, Ryanair Group
14	Stockholm, Sweden	314,467	Norwegian, SAS
15	Madrid, Spain	299,927	Air Europa, Iberia
16	Palma de Mallorca, Spain	298,146	Air Europa, Iberia, Ryanair Group, Vueling

Busiest countries served

Busiest Countries from Alicante–Elche Airport, January–December 2019

Rank	Countries	Passengers	Top Carriers
1	United Kingdom	5,598,054	British Airways, EasyJet, Flybe, Jet2, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Ryanair, TUI, Vueling
2	Spain	1,550,745	Air Europa, Iberia, Ryanair, Volotea, Vueling
3	Germany	915,864	EasyJet,Lufthansa Group, Norwegian, Ryanair Group, TUI Group
4	Netherlands	919,171	EasyJet, KLM, Ryanair Group, Vueling
5	Norway	766,289	Norwegian, Ryanair Group, SAS
6	Belgium	682,773	Lufthansa Group, Ryanair Group, TUI Group Vueling
7	Sweden	565,904	Norwegian, Ryanair Group, SAS
8	France	387,474	Air France, Ryanair Group, Volotea, Vueling
9	Ireland	355,887	Aer Lingus, Ryanair Group
10	Denmark	335,437	Norwegian, Ryanair Group, SAS
11	Italy	319,768	EasyJet, Ryanair Group, Volotea, Vueling
12	Switzerland	275,872	EasyJet, Lufthansa Group, Vueling
13	Algeria	258,184	Air Algérie, Vueling
14	Russia	243,644	Aeroflot Group, S7 Airlines, Vueling
15	Poland	217,010	Ryanair Group, Smartwings Group, Wizzair
16	Finland	176,234	Finnair, Norwegian

Busiest airlines

Top 15 Airlines in Alicante–Elche Airport during 2019

Rank	Airline	Passengers
1	Ryanair (base)	4,869,810
2	easyJet, easyJet Europe & easyJet Switzerland	1,941,350
3	Vueling (base)	1,709,242
4	Norwegian Air International & Norwegian Air Shuttle (base)	1,365,214
5	Jet2 (base)	1,332,097
6	Transavia	616,110
7	TUI fly Belgium	355,815
8	TUI Airways	312,714
9	SAS	300,455
10	Air Nostrum (base)	283,530
11	British Airways	204,031
12	Air Europa	195,769
13	S7 Airlines	180,901
14	Air Algérie	164,637
15	Wizz Air	147,892

Ground transport

Alicante airport is accessible by buses, taxis, and private cars on automobile road N-338. New car parking was opened in 2011 together with the new terminal. employs a modern sensor system with displays.

Rail link

The new terminal of the airport was built with space allocated for a railway station and an Alicante Tram stop. In 2019, the Generalitat Valenciana granted €50,000 towards a feasibility study in connecting Alicante Airport to the rail network. [34] The same year, the Ministry of Development put out to tender the contract to build the airport rail link to form part of the Cercanías Murcia/Alicante commuter rail network.[35]

Bus station

Alicante airport has one bus stop for all the bus lines operating at the airport. The bus stop at Alicante airport is located outside the departures area of the terminal on level 2. The airport is connected with the city of Alicante by the C6 bus line.[36] There are also hourly bus services to Benidorm and Torrevieja.

See also

• Transport in Spain
• ENAIRE

References

1. "Estadsticas – Aeropuertos Espaoles y Navegacin Area – aena-aeropuertos.es". Retrieved 1 June 2015.
2. Spanish AIP (AENA)
3. http://www.aena.es/csee/ccurl/74/661/anual-provisional-2012.pdf%5B%5D
4. Antonio Martín (3 February 2018). "El Altet, de escala del correo francés a África al quinto aeropuerto español en 50 años". El Mundo. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
5. Alicante Plaza (11 January 2017). "El Altet cierra 2016 con 12.344.945, su récord histórico" (in Spanish). Alicante Plaza. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
6. Alicante Airport airports-worldwide.com
7. "History – Alicante-Elche Airport – Aena". Retrieved 1 June 2015.
8. Alicante Airport New Terminal
9. Old Alicante Airport Terminals to Reopen Archived 9 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine by Mark Nolan, The Leader Newspaper, 2011-12-09
10. New terminal should help Alicante pass 10 million mark this summer; Ryanair now accounts for one-third of traffic anna.aero, Airport Analysis, 23 March 2011
11. Ryanair announces 21st base in Alicante, Spain Archived 12 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Ryanair News Release, 09.08.07
12. Ryanair suprime 31 rutas en el aeropuerto de El Altet Las Provincias, 26.10.11
14. "Introduction – Alicante-Elche Airport – Aena". Retrieved 1 June 2015.
15. Paco Escribano (25 July 2016). "Jornada histórica en el aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche con un vuelo cada 3 minutos" (in Spanish). INFORMACIÓN. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
16. Alicante Airport New Terminal, AENA Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine The airport in figures.
18. "Aeroflot announces a new route: Alicante-Elche – Moscow Sheremetyevo" (Press release). Foroblog of Alicante-Elche Airport. 25 February 2016. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
19. http://airlineroute.net/2016/02/25/su-alc-jun16/
20. "Air France: new flights between Madrid and Paris Orly". lepetitjournal.com. 3 November 2019.
21. "Atlantic Airways announces a new charter route: Alicante-Elche – Vágar". Foroblog of Alicante-Elche Airport. 6 February 2016. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
22. Finnair adds frequencies to Japan and Europe for the upcoming winter season company.finnair.com 14 March 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2018
23. "Air Nostrum will fly from Vigo to Alicante, Las Palmas, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura". 17 January 2020.
24. https://businessinsider.com.pl/firmy/wakacje-2020-lot-poleci-do-kurortow-w-grecji-hiszpanii-i-wloch/zz5f5ew
25. "Hamburg Airport low-cost airline will soon be flying to two new destinations". mopo.de. 16 November 2019.
26. Liu, Jim. "Ryanair / Laudamotion S20 network consolidation as of 18JUN20". Routesonline. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
27. Liu, Jim (9 October 2019). "SAS S20 Short-Haul network changes as of 08OCT19". routesonline.com.
28. Ltd. 2018, UBM (UK). "Swiss expands Geneva European network from June 2019". Routesonline.
29. "SWISS Adds Zurich – Alicante Route in S16". Airlineroute.net. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
30. Liu, Jim. "Volotea outlines post-COVID 19 network expansion in S20". Routesonline. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
31. https://fly-news.es/aviacion-comercial/aerolineas/volotea-madrid-toulouse-faro-alicante-napoles-luxemburgo/
32. https://wizzair.com/#/
33. https://wizzair.com/#/
34. "Los accesos a El Altet, la variante de Benissa y unir la A-31 con la A-35, las inversiones de Fomento en 2019". Alicante Plaza (in Spanish). 14 January 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
35. "Contract for first phase of Murcia-Alicante Airport rail link put out to tender". Murcia Today. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
36. "Bus Travel to and from Alicante Airport". Alicante Airport Guide. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

External links

Media related to Alicante Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website (in English)
• Current weather for LEAL at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for ALC at Aviation Safety Network