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Date Published: 12/05/2026

Record-breaking Alicante Airport among Europe's busiest and most punctual

The Costa Blanca hub is handling millions more passengers with fewer delays

Alicante-Elche Airport is continuing to cement its position as one of Spain’s busiest and best-performing airports after recording its highest passenger numbers ever while also improving punctuality.

The Costa Blanca airport finished last year just short of the 20 million passenger mark, setting a new all-time record and confirming its growing importance as one of Europe’s key holiday travel hubs.

Despite the huge increase in traffic, operations at the airport have actually become more efficient.

According to the latest Eurocontrol data, almost seven out of ten flights departing from Alicante-Elche Airport left within the 15-minute window officially considered “on time” by European aviation authorities.

That’s particularly significant given the widespread disruption affecting air travel across Europe, where staff shortages, overloaded airspace and delays at major hubs continue to cause problems, especially during the busy summer months.

On average, Alicante handled around 172 departing flights every day last year, placing it among the 50 busiest airports in Europe for aircraft movements.

The airport has also earned praise for its fast and efficient ground operations. These are the behind-the-scenes processes involving baggage handling, loading, unloading, refuelling and preparing aircraft for departure.

Eurocontrol figures show Alicante is now outperforming several much larger airports, including Madrid, Barcelona, Palma, London Gatwick, Lisbon, Paris and Amsterdam when it comes to minimising ground delays.

Average delays linked to ground operations have now fallen to around three minutes, putting Alicante on a similar level to highly efficient airports such as Berlin and Bergamo.

Summer remains the most challenging period, with punctuality naturally dipping as flight numbers surge during the peak tourist season. Even so, the airport’s performance is still better than in previous record-breaking years.

While around a quarter of departures still experience delays of between 15 minutes and an hour, longer delays of more than 60 minutes have become less common than they were two years ago.

Arrivals, meanwhile, are performing particularly well.

According to the same report, a large number of flights are now landing ahead of schedule at Alicante-Elche Airport, with some touching down up to 30 minutes early, underlining the airport’s growing reputation for operational efficiency despite handling more passengers than ever before.

Image: Freepik

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