Slump in summer flights confirmed
Alicante-Elche airport holds its own in the national market
ALTHOUGH Alicante-Elche airport received 10% of all the international flights to Spain in July – bringing a total of 2.1 million passengers – this was an 80% drop on the same month last year.
The figures come from the government’s tourism institute Turespaña.
Secretary of state for tourism, Fernando Valdés said this shows that Spain is still a destination that the principal markets sending international tourists seek out and choose.
He argued that greater coordination at European level to avoid new travel restrictions is ‘crucial’.
Most international travellers used budget airlines (61.1%), compared to traditional airlines (38.9%), with low-cost companies making up the top four at the airport in El Altet.
Overall traffic of international passengers on low-cost airlines dropped by 72.7%, compared to 69.6% for traditional carriers.
From January to July, 15.5 million travellers came to Spain via international airports, which is 71.4% down on the same period of last year.
During July, almost half (923,593) came from Germany (23.6%) and the UK (20.3%), followed by the Netherlands (9%), France (8.5%), Italy (7.5%), Belgium (6.1%), Switzerland (5.3%), Poland (2.7%), Ireland (1.8%) and Sweden (1.7%).
The regions with the most arrivals were the Balearics (29.6%), followed by Andalucía (15.5%), Valencia (14.5%), Cataluña (13.5%), Madrid (13%) and the Canaries (11.4%).
The only airports to exceed the figures for July from Alicante-Elche were Palma de Mallorca with 21.6% of the total, Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas (13%), Málaga (12.9%) and Barcelona (12.1%).
Several airlines have still chosen Alicante-Elche airport to launch more than a dozen new routes this summer.
Volotea, Air France, British Airways, Wizz Air, EasyJet, Norwegian, Ryanair and KLM have have started offering connections to London, Vienna, Exeter, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Luxemburg, amongst others.
Director of the Costa Blanca tourism board, José Mancebo claimed on Saturday that this shows the ‘potential, attractiveness and strength’ of the province for tourism.
During July, August and September, airlines using Alicante-Elche are offering 1,397,006 seats on 7,922 flights.
British Airways is putting on the airport’s first connection with Heathrow, due to the increase in Britons buying homes on the Costa Blanca, said Sr Mancebo.
Airlines are still maintaining 70-80% of their scheduled flights, ‘despite the difficult situation’, he added.