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ARCHIVED - July passenger numbers at Alicante-Elche airport reach 43.5 per cent of 2019 levels
The lack of UK flights holds back the recovery of activity at the Costa Blanca airport
The latest data published by airport management company Aena reveal that the number of passengers flying into or out of Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport in July was an impressive 77 per cent higher than in the same month last year, but of course the comparison is somewhat distorted by the fact that the start of summer in 2020 was still affected by the initial coronavirus lockdowns throughout Europe during the first wave of the Covid pandemic.
A more realistic comparison is with July 2019, and although the figures show that passenger numbers last month were 56.5 per cent lower than two years ago it is perhaps fairer to say that the data show signs that the level of traffic is recovering, after months during which Alicante reported far more drastic losses of passengers to the pandemic.
In this sense, the 748,456 passengers passing through the terminal building represent almost double the number reported the month before, and progress is being made steadily in Alicante as it is throughout Spain.
But the airport in El Altet still depends heavily on traffic to and from the UK, which until recently has been limited by British government restrictions, and for this reason Alicante continues to lag behind the average rate of recovery in Spanish airports. Air traffic management company Enaire reports that across the country the number of flights returned during July to 68 per cent of 2019 levels and passenger numbers reached 51.5 per cent, making it clear that until more UK flights return to the roster the effects of the pandemic will linger longer.
UK passengers at Alicante
In July 2019, before most people had even heard of coronavirus, flights between Alicante and the UK accounted for 39 per cent of all passengers, carrying 680,000 people. This July, though, there were only 112,000 on board services to and from the UK, making up 14.9 per cent of the overall figure, and the largest share corresponded instead to domestic air traffic (133,000 passengers, a share of 17.8 per cent).
In other words, until more UK flights are reinstated by airlines it is hard to see passenger numbers at Alicante-Elche returning to the numbers of two years ago. During 2019 a new record of 15 million passengers passed through the terminal building before last year the figure dropped to 3.74 million, and with the total standing at 1.66 million after 7 months of 2021 it remains to be seen what the figure might be by the end of December.
Image: archive