Cole Sinanian
BUDGET airline Ryanair will add a total of nine new routes to the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez airport, connecting the Costa Blanca tourist hotspot to cities throughout Europe.
The expansion was announced on March 1 during an event held by the Alicante City & Beach Tourism Board, and is part of a joint effort between Ryanair and the Alicante government to grow the tourism industry while also reducing its seasonal nature.
With the routes lasting through the summer season, Ryanair will add flights from Alicante to the cities of Cardiff and Norwich in the UK: Munster, Germany; Rzeszow, Poland; Zagreb, Croatia; Sofia, Bulgaria; and Barcelona, Spain.
Additionally, the Irish airline will reconnect Alicante with Budapest, Hungary, and expand service to Lisbon, Portugal.
The Cardiff route will begin operating in May and will fly only Fridays, while all other routes will begin in March and operate twice a week.
With the addition of the new summer routes, Ryanair will connect Alicante to a total of 21 countries.
“We have 89 routes, nine of which are new, and we’re going to have almost a million more passengers to Alicante this summer,” predicted Ryanair General Director for Spain and Portugal Elena Cabrera.
Alicante mayor Luis Barcala asked for more state support in expanding tourism during the event, and drew attention to the city’s still-unrealized plans to add a second runway and improve transportation connections to the airport.
Since AENA — the Alicante airport’s operator — released a master plan in 2019 for the airport’s expansion, the process has been long and tedious, with officials announcing the need for a new in depth-report in January before construction can begin.
Alicante Provincial Council President Toni Pérez drew attention to Ryanair’s importance in boosting the city’s tourism and connecting Alicante and the Costa Blanca to the world, and praised the cooperation between the public and private sectors from which the expansion resulted.
He described the airline as “fundamental in our connectivity with many countries due to the synergies it generates,” according to the press release.
Deseasonalisation
Ryanair’s new routes from Alicante are part of a wider effort to increase tourist activity in the area throughout the year.
The airline will add three new planes to its Alicante fleet in 2024 for a total of 16, up from 11 in 2022.
“Seasonality” in tourism refers to the concentration of activity during certain times of the year, which can present challenges to local economies that are dependent on tourism.
Seasonal tourism is unstable, putting pressure on local infrastructure and the service economy during the tourist season and creating job insecurity for workers in the offseason.
“Deseasonalisation” involves coordinated efforts between the private and public sectors to generate year-round tourist interest to insure that tourism flows evenly throughout the year
“Our commitment to deseasonalisation is working and we continue to grow not only in quantity, but more importantly in quality,” said Alicante mayor Luis Barcala.
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