Alicante Airport hits record two million passengers in a single month
The Costa Blanca hub welcomed 11.3 million passengers in the first seven months of 2025
Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport has broken a historic milestone by handling more than two million passengers in a single month for the first time. In July, a total of 2,106,991 travellers passed through its doors, 5.9% more than in the same month last year.
This figure surpasses the previous record set in July 2024 by 117,328 passengers. From January to July, the airport has already welcomed 11,311,482 travellers, a 9.5% increase compared to the same period last year.
These numbers place Alicante-Elche as the fifth busiest airport in Spain, behind Madrid, Barcelona, Palma and Malaga. Only these five airports handled more than two million passengers in July, with Madrid leading at 6.1 million.
International routes were once again the driving force behind the surge. Foreign passenger numbers rose by 8.5% to 1,871,785, while domestic travel fell by 10.6% to 234,133.
The United Kingdom remains the dominant market with 688,968 travellers, followed by Norway with 130,818, Germany with 120,259, the Netherlands with 116,937 and France with 100,723.
The Costa Blanca hub also set a new record for flights in a single month, with 12,829 operations in July, 5.7% more than the same month in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025, there have been 71,240 flights, representing a 9.7% increase over last year.
The growth is even more striking when compared to a decade ago. In all of 2015, the airport handled 10.5 million passengers, fewer than it has already processed in the first seven months of this year. With July traditionally being the busiest month, more than half of the annual traffic record is already secured.
Alicante airport is increasingly international, with only 12% of July’s passengers travelling on domestic routes. Around nine in every ten travellers were from abroad. The British market remains the most important, accounting for 31% of all passengers and 35% of the international total, with traffic from the UK up 7.1% compared to last year.
Irish travellers showed the biggest increase, rising by 18.3% to 73,350 passengers, moving them into ninth place overall. Polish visitors recorded the highest percentage growth of all nationalities, up 19.1% to more than 92,000 passengers.
Despite these successes, transport problems to and from the terminal continue. During July, the same issues persisted in connecting passengers to destinations across the province, particularly at night. Since last September, measures have been in place to reduce long taxi queues and congestion, but the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport’s emergency plan has not kept pace with passenger growth.
Official data from the regional government shows fewer complaints, yet the underlying problem remains. The measures so far have included adding 24 taxi licenses in Elche, allowing 10 additional VTCs, and increasing the frequency of Alicante bus services, but queues and overcrowding are still common sights at the terminal.
Image: Archive
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