ALICANTE’S El Altet Airport expects to close the year with passenger arrival figures of approximately 9.5 million. This is thanks to increased domestic tourism, the increase of flights by low-cost airline Ryanair, and the increase of passengers from countries like Norway and now Finland.
The enlargement of El Altet is costing 670 million euros which are being paid by the central government of Spain. The number of travellers using the airport is forecast to increase from 12.2 million passengers a year to some 20 million. El Altet will grow in size to 333,5000 square metres, six times bigger than its present size. The number of check in desks will increase from 53 to 96, and passport control points from 17 to 32. The number of boarding gates will triple, from 5 to 15.
The car park will also grow, from 64,606 square metres to 122,5000, enabling 4,200 cars to be parked there.
The new terminal looks very monumental, with its 20 domes, 8 floors, arrival and departure lounges and 46,000 square metres. The boarding area will have 7,624 metres space for commercial purposes, and 26 boarding gates.
Also, AENA have incorporated a new automatic system to check luggage, which will speed up and improve security checks.
All this is just after El Altet ends the best summer of its history, with a record number of flights using its installations. Ryanair is one of the carriers which has brought the highest number of passengers to the airport.
El Altet was the fifth busiest airport in Spain over the summer months of June, July and August, after Gran Canaria, Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga. August was the busiest month, with over one million passengers passing through El Altet.
Ryanair has announced three new routes between Malaga and Ibiza to Stockholm and from Alicante to Tampere (Finland), which will begin operations in late March 2011, reported the Irish airline.
The airline will link Alicante and the Finnish city of Tampere, which will begin operating on the same day, also with three weekly, while traveling between Ibiza and Stockholm-Skavsta airport, will start one day later, on 28 March and will also have three frequencies per week.
With most other airlines cutting back, shedding jobs and looking for ways to save money, Ryanair have bucked the trend and expanded its operations. The Irish airline now flies to 50 destinations in Europe and North Africa from Alicante and during October they operated 1,760 flights from Alicante which is 101% more than for the same month last year, and 620 more than their nearest rival, Easyjet. The third airline at El Altet was Air Berlin with 562 flights and Iberia was fourth with 464.
