COVID-19 took its toll on Alicante-Elche airport last year with passenger numbers slashed by 85% on 2019’s historic record high.

Figures from airport operator, Aena, showed that just 3.7 million people used the facility at El Altet in 2020,

The airport welcomed over 15 million passengers in 2019.

There are now very few flights coming into Alicante-Elche due to coronavirus travel restrictions which include arrivals having to produce a negative PCR test for COVID-19.

Strict travel rules allow only Spanish citizens and residency holders to come into the country on the very limited schedule.

UK visitors normally dominate the winter services but are there now days when not even a single flight from Britain lands at the airport, which has closed nearly all of its shops.

A further blow has come with the news that Jet2 has extended its cancellation of flights to Alicante-Elche by an extra four weeks through to March 25 due to UK travel restrictions

Across the Aena network of airports, passenger traffic fell by 72.4% in 2020, which equates to a drop of nearly 200 million people.

Madrid-Barajas airport was the busiest last year with 17.1 million travellers.

Alicante-Elche’s 3.74 million passengers placed them as the sixth-busiest Spanish airport, behind Gran Canaria on 5.13 million, who managed to welcome more tourists during the summer and autumn.

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