Airport Guide

History of Alicante Airport

Spain's sixth-busiest airport opened in 1967 as the city looked to replace the older aerodrome with one capable of supporting the nascent rise in package tourism.

Within the first couple of years, a number of regular domestic services were being offered, most notably direct links to Madrid and Barcelona operated by the Spanish national carrier Iberia.

With passenger numbers hitting one million a year in the mid-1970s, an extended runway was introduced and a new terminal built to welcome overseas tourists to the sunny south of Spain.

Over recent years, such expansion has continued in line with the introduction of bargain flights to Alicante from cities across Europe, most notably thanks to Ryanair's decision to make the airport one of its main hubs on the Iberian peninsula.

At present, the airport welcomes 11 million passengers a year, though work is being carried out to expand passenger facilities so as to increase this to 20 million within the coming years.

Travelling to Alicante Airport

Alicante Airport is connected to the centre of Alicante by regular and cheap public transport services.

Passengers are able to make use of bus services from outside the terminal buildings to downtown Alicante, as well as to Murcia, Elche and the popular coastal resort town of Benidorm, while coaches operated by hotels or tour operators also pick up holidaymakers.

At the same time, taxis are always waiting outside the airport for those travellers not wanting to struggle with their luggage or head to a suburb or village not served by the local buses.

Plans are currently in place to build a new station linking regional tram and train services to the airport, though no date has been confirmed for the project's completion.

Airlines Flying from Alicante Airport

Iberia still operates its daily flights from Alicante to Madrid, but the flag-carrier has dropped its service to Barcelona.

Other national carriers jetting into the Spanish city include Aer Lingus, which flies to Belfast, Cork and Dublin; Air Finland, which flies to Helsinki; Bulgaria Air, which jets to Sofia; and Tunis Air, which operates direct services to Tunis.

Meanwhile, Scandinavian Airlines flies to Bergen, Kristiansand, Oslo, Stavanger and Trondheim, and Monarch connects Alicante with Birmingham, London and Manchester.

However, it is low-cost airlines that currently dominate the airport, offering bargain flights to the sun from dozens of European destinations.

Irish budget carrier Ryanair offers 59 services to and from Alicante, including links to Birmingham, Bologna, Bratislava, Cork, Doncaster-Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kerry, Liverpool, London,
Madrid, Oslo, Milan, Pisa, Stockholm and Venice.

Meanwhile, easyJet operates around a dozen routes, including flights to Belfast, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle.

Air Berlin offers bargain flights to cities across Germany as well as to Palma de Mallorca; bmibaby flies to Birmingham, Cardiff and East Midlands; Flybe to Exeter and Southampton and Norwegian Air Shuttle to destinations in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

Additionally, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways operate regular direct flights to Alicante from around a dozen UK cities between them.