Alicante-Elche consolidad its status as one of Spain’s top-five airports in 2019, breaking two records along the way. In November, the airport topped 14 million annual passengers for the first time, and at the end of the year it extended that record to over 15 million.
In total, 7.6 per cent more passengers used the airport in 2019, a total of 15,047,840. This maintained its position as the fifth busiest airport in Aena’s national network, behind Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca and Málaga-Costa del Sol.
The number of international passengers using Alicante-Elche Airport for commercial flights rose by 7.2% to 13,314,114; while the national total increased by 11.5% to 1,723,046.
Breaking down international traffic by nationality, the countries with the highest number of passengers were the United Kingdom (5,931,952), followed by Germany (1,015,417), the Netherlands (943,162), Belgium (767,284), Norway (759,760) and Sweden (623,933).
Alicante-Elche Airport also registered a record number of annual flights, topping 100,000 for the first time. Precisely 101,408, which represented an increase of 4.8% compared with 2018.
National commercial flights increased by 0.7% to 16,451 registered operations, and international flights grew by 5.7% to 84,570..
The number of operations by country were: United Kingdom (35,550), Germany (6,385), the Netherlands (5,843), Belgium (5,125), Norway (4,871) and Sweden (3,767).
The UK’s dominating position is also reflected in a survey conducted by flights and hotels portal Jetcost. Alicante topped the list of favourite destinations in Spain among British tourists, beating Málaga into second place, followed by Tenerife, Barcelona and Madrid.
For updated flight information at Alicante-Elche airport, click here.
National Spanish Air Traffic in 2019
Spanish airports in the Aena network registered a record total of 275,237,810 passengers in 2019, 4.4% more than the previous year. These included 188.8 million travelling on international flights (3.5% more than in 2018) and 85.5 million on national routes (up 6.4%).
Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport led the way with 61.7 million passengers, followed by Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat (52.6 million) and Palma de Mallorca (29.7 million). Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport drew close to a 20 million milestone in 2019 (19.8 million), while three others also exceeded the 10 million barrier: Alicante-Elche (just over 15 million), Gran Canaria (13.2 million) and Tenerife South (11.1 million).
The total number of operations at Aena airports in 2019 was 2,360,957, 2.6% more than in 2018. The busiest airports were: Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (426,376), Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat (344,558), Palma de Mallorca (217,218), Málaga-Costa del Sol (144,920), Gran Canaria (126,452), Alicante-Elche (101,408) and Valencia (77,699).
