Alicante Airport: new giant terminal

The main airport of the Costa Blanca - Alicante El Altet – on March 23, 2011 opened with renewed air terminal.

The new terminal has become the most ambitious project in the tourism industry of Alicante. Its area is 6 times bigger than the area of the two existing terminals. In this case, Alicante El Altet is the seventh biggest airport in Spain.

Construction of the third terminal Alicante El Altet began in 2004. The total amount of construction is estimated now at almost 650 million euros.

The new terminal is located on 6 floors and offers its guests 98 check-in desks, 26 boarding gates and 16 luggage carousels. In total, Alicante El Altet is able to serve 6000 passengers per hour. Capabilities of the new terminal will increase the overall throughput of Alicante airport to 20 million people a year.

The opening of the new terminal attended Minister of Public Works Jose Blanco. Moreover, despite the fact that the terminal will start working already this season, completing of construction works is scheduled for 2014.

Currently, Alicante airport serves flights to 75 destinations. Low cost carriers such as Ryanair and Easyjet are the key customers of the airport. Low-cost airlines have provided the Alicante airport for passenger growth from 6.5 million in 2001 to 9.3 million people in 2010.

It is worth noting that last year's performance of El Altet was far from good. Demand for resorts in Spain fell because of the crisis and as a result the airport lost many clients. Nevertheless, the current tourist situation promises favorable season for Alicante. It is expected that passenger traffic in Alicante will be over $10 million in 2011.