Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport

Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, Valencian: Aeroport d'Alacant-Elx Miguel Hernández), (IATA: ALC, ICAO: LEAL), is an international airport located about 9 km (5.6 mi) southwest of the city of Alicante and about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) east of the city of Elche in Spain. Alicante–Elche is the busiest airport in south-eastern Spain and serves both the southern part of the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia.
The airport is a base for Air Nostrum, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Ryanair and Vueling. Passenger traffic increased significantly in the 2010s, beating its own yearly record from 2013 to 2019; in 2019 it set a record at 15 million passengers. It is the largest airport in the Valencian Community (well ahead of Valencia and Castellón), one of the 50 busiest in Europe and was Spain's fifth busiest airport in 2019. 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 ==
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 at the airport was Convair Metropolitan by Aviaco. In November 1969, Iberia established regular connections to Madrid and Barcelona.
Historically, up until 2003, Iberia was the leading airline at the airport. With the decline of conventional airlines, low-cost EasyJet took the lead in 2004. In June 2006, Avianca commenced a weekly flight from Bogotá to Barcelona whose outbound leg included a stop in Alicante. This was the city's first transatlantic service. Avianca flew the route with a Boeing 767. In 2008, the airline ended service to Alicante after Spanish authorities granted it permission to operate the flight nonstop in both directions.
In November 2007, Ryanair, the largest European low-cost airline, established a base at Alicante. It has since grown to become one of the leading carriers at the airport, and by 2011 it had increased its presence further with eleven based aircraft, 62 routes, and had carried more than 3 million passengers.
In March 2011, Alicante-Elche's current terminal opened, which replaced the previous 2 terminals.
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. On 12 July 2013, the name of the airport was officially changed from Aeropuerto de Alicante to Aeropuerto de Alicante–Elche with the IATA airport code (ALC) remaining unchanged.
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, 2012 and 2020. 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 fourth.
On 23 July 2016, the airport registered its busiest day of operations to date, handling 347 flights—with an average of one flight every 3 minutes—and about 58,000 passengers in a single day.
In 2020, the airport recorded more than 11 million less passengers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the airport was renamed again, this time to Aeropuerto de Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández, to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of Spanish poet and playwright Miguel Hernández.
In 2023, reached 15.75 mill. passengers, representing an increase of 19.2% compared to 2022.
== Terminals ==
Terminal N is the only terminal currently in public use.
=== Terminal N ===
In November 2004, the airport's operator Aena approved plans to construct a new terminal for ALC, as a response to the airport's continuous passenger growth. Construction began in 2005, with an initial planned completion of 2009/10. After more than 5 years of construction, Terminal N (Nueva Área Terminal) officially opened on 23 March 2011. All flight operations were transferred to this terminal on the following day. The first flight to depart from Terminal N was a Ryanair flight to Memmingen. The terminal has an area of 333,500 square metres (3,590,000 sq ft), more than six times the size of the previous 2 terminals and has a capacity of 20 million passengers a year. Terminal N was constructed to the east of terminals 1 and 2 and includes 96 check-in desks, 40 gates, including 15 with airbridges, and 16 baggage claim carousels. The terminal is split into two areas, the processor where the C Gates are held, and the dock where the majority of B Gates are located. Flights within the Schengen Area use both areas of the terminal while flights to non-Schengen destinations only use the dock.
In October 2011, Ryanair terminated 31 routes after airport operator Aena demanded that Ryanair pay over €2 million a year for the use of Terminal N's air bridges, a facility that Ryanair had called "unnecessary" as the airline prefers to use mobile stairways for boarding and disembarking. However, Ryanair have since re-increased their number of routes from the airport.
=== Former terminals ===
By 1970, the airport was handling close to 1 million passengers, which prompted the construction of a new passenger terminal, the first phase opening in 1972 for international flights and the second phase opening in 1975 for domestic flights. In 1978, passenger numbers exceeded 2 million. In 1980, the runway was extended to three kilometres.
During the 1990s, the terminals were modernised and expanded in order to accommodate the airport's rising passenger numbers. A new control tower and office building, together with operation and business centres, were constructed and five air bridges were installed to facilitate boarding. Car parking capacity was increased, the aircraft apron was expanded and a new runway exit was also constructed.
While construction on Terminal N was underway, Aena approved plans for an extension to the existing terminal, which would act as an auxiliary until the new terminal was complete. The adjacent extension opened in January 2007 and was named Terminal 2 (T2) and the existing terminal was renamed Terminal 1 (T1).
Terminals 1 and 2 have remained closed, yet structurally intact, since 2011. There has since been speculation that they may reopen in the future. Terminal 1 (T1) had 39 check-in desks, 11 departure gates (5 with airbridges) and 9 baggage claim carousels, while terminal 2 (T2) had 14 check-in desks, 6 gates (none with airbridges), and 2 baggage claim carousels.
== Airlines and destinations ==
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Alicante–Elche Airport:
Airlines 	Destinations
British Airways 	London–Gatwick
Brussels Airlines	Brussels
easyJet 	Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, Manchester
TUI Airways 	Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
== Statistics ==
=== Annual traffic ===
Traffic by calendar year
 	Passengers 	Aircraft movements 	Cargo (tonnes)
2000 	6,038,266 	56,427 	7,745
2001 	6,542,121 	56,550 	7,923
2002 	7,010,322 	59,268 	6,548
2003 	8,195,454 	66,571 	5,848
2004 	8,571,144 	71,387 	6,036
2005 	8,795,705 	76,109 	5,193
2006 	8,893,720 	76,813 	4,931
2007 	9,120,631 	79,756 	4,533
2008 	9,578,304 	81,097 	5,982
2009 	9,139,607 	74,281 	3,199
2010 	9,382,935 	74,474 	3,112
2011 	9,913,764 	75,572 	3,011
2012 	8,855,764 	62,468 	2,527
2013 	9,638,835 	68,305 	2,589
2014 	10,066,067 	71,571 	2,637
2015 	10,575,288 	74,086 	3,587
2016 	12,344,945 	87,113 	5,461
2017 	13,706,513 	89,527 	5,040
2018 	13,981,320 	96,734 	4,013
2019 	15,047,840 	101,408 	4,032
2020 	3,739,499 	37,153 	3,519
2021 	5,841,181 	51,505 	3,984
2022 	13,202,880 	90,109 	4,641
2023 	15,747,678 	100,547 	4,462
Source: Aena Statistics	Source: Aena Statistics	Source: Aena Statistics	Source: Aena Statistics
== Ground transport ==
Alicante airport is accessible by buses, taxis, and private cars on automobile road N-338. New car parking was opened in 2011 together with the new terminal. employs a modern sensor system with displays.
=== Rail link ===
The new terminal of the airport was built with space allocated for a railway station and an Alicante Tram stop. In 2019, the Generalitat Valenciana granted €50,000 towards a feasibility study in connecting Alicante Airport to the rail network.  The same year, the Ministry of Development put out to tender the contract to build the airport rail link to form part of the Cercanías Murcia/Alicante commuter rail network.
=== Bus station ===
Alicante airport has one bus stop for all the bus lines operating at the airport. The airport is connected with the city of Alicante by the C6 bus line. There are also hourly bus services to Benidorm and Torrevieja.
== Accidents and incidents ==
* In September 2013 a baby died at the airport shortly after arriving with relatives on a flight from London after the child's mother placed the baby in a carrier onto a conveyor belt used for bulky luggage items. The belt activated due to having detected the carrier's weight, and the baby became tangled in the machine's rollers.
* On April 10, 2017, a Jet2 Boeing 757-200 suffered a tailstrike during landing, damaging the area around the lower tail. The Spanish Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission determined the copilot, who was flying, left the nose too high during the landing and the captain failed to intervene. The copilot, who was on his final day of training after working for Jet2 for two years, reported to investigators he felt stressed due to pressure from Jet2 and was sleeping poorly. Jet2 fired the copilot following the accident.
* In January 2020 a fire in the international terminal's roof caused a 24-hour closure of the airport, with the diversion of 160 flights.
== References ==
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# ^ Jump up to:a b New terminal should help Alicante pass 10 million mark this summer; Ryanair now accounts for one-third of traffic anna.aero, Airport Analysis, 23 March 2011
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# ^ Ryanair announces 21st base in Alicante, Spain Archived 12 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Ryanair News Release, 09.08.07
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# ^ Alicante Airport New Terminal, AENA Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine The airport in figures.
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# ^ Old Alicante Airport Terminals to Reopen Archived 9 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine by Mark Nolan, The Leader Newspaper, 2011-12-09
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# ^ Finnair adds frequencies to Japan and Europe for the upcoming winter season company.finnair.com 14 March 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2018
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# ^ "30,000 PASSENGERS AFFECTED BY ALICANTE-ELCHE AIRPORT FIRE". English Radio News. 16 January 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2021.