Alicante–Elche Airport
Alicante–Elche Airport
Alicante–Elche Airport (Spanish:
Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche) (IATA: ALC, ICAO: LEAL), originally named El
Altet, is —as of 2017— the fifth-busiest airport in Spain 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.
The airport is a base for Air
Nostrum, Evelop Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Ryanair and Vueling. Passenger
traffic has increased significantly in the last decade, beating its own yearly
record since 2013 to date; in particular, in 2015, it handled 10,574,484
passengers. Then, in 2016 it set its new record with almost 12,350,000
passengers, in 2017 it set its new consecutive record at 13.7 million
passengers. It is one of the 50 busiest in Europe. Up to 80% of all passenger
flights are international. The largest numbers of passengers arrive from the
United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Sweden. 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. Iberia established a regular connections
Alicante–Madrid and Alicante–Barcelona in November 1969. 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.
The next renovation took place
during the 1990s. A new office building together with operation and business
centres were constructed. For the first time, five air bridges were installed
to facilitate boarding.
In 2011, the new terminal was
opened at the airport increasing the annual airport capacity to 20 million
passengers per year. 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.
Historically, up until 2003, Iberia
was the leading airline at the airport. With the decline of conventional
airlines, in 2004 low-cost EasyJet took the lead. In 2007, Ryanair, the largest
European low-cost airline established a base in Alicante. 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 but the
owners of the airport want all planes to use the air bridges in the new
building and not unload on the tarmac).
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. This was
implemented in July 2013 when the name of the airport was officially changed
from "Alicante Airport" to "Alicante–Elche Airport" 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.
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
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