Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport is gearing up for a busier winter season, taking another step towards reducing its reliance on summer tourism.
Between November and March, the airport will not only see more flights but also more destinations than last winter, according to the latest connectivity report from the Costa Blanca Tourism Board.
Although the official slot schedule is still to be confirmed, forecasts suggest at least a 4% rise in available routes. That means 206 connections will be on offer this winter, compared to 198 last year. The growth comes from both brand-new destinations and the extension of popular summer routes that will now continue into the colder months.
The UK remains a loyal market for the Costa Blanca, but new and emerging routes in Eastern Europe are also on the rise. Flights to Chisinau, Moldova, launched by Fly One and Sky Up, will now run through winter. Wizz Air will also keep its services to Belgrade and Milan, while routes to Bratislava, Santander, Lyon, Bournemouth, London, and Newcastle are expected to continue thanks to high demand.
Alicante-Elche Airport: More Flights
The total number of flights is forecast to rise by around 7.1%, with an estimated 7.5 million seats available across departures and arrivals. Ryanair continues to dominate, handling nearly half of all traffic at Alicante. The airline could offer up to 77 different routes this winter, slightly down from the 90 it ran over the summer.
Among Ryanair’s plans are the continuation of new connections added this summer, including flights to Linz and Salzburg in Austria, and Bydgoszcz in Poland. This would bring the number of Polish destinations served by the airline to ten. As usual, the UK and Germany remain Ryanair’s strongest markets, while within Spain it will serve Lanzarote, Ibiza, Palma, Seville, and Vitoria.
EasyJet, which also has a base at the airport, has scheduled 17 routes, mostly to the UK, alongside services to Lyon, Naples, Geneva, and Basel. Jet2.com will maintain 13 UK routes, while Norwegian will connect Alicante to Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, and a series of Norwegian airports.
