Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport is gearing up for a strong summer season, with airlines announcing significant increases in routes and seat capacity.
British carrier Jet2.com is leading the expansion, following Vueling’s earlier announcement of growth in both European and North African connections.
Jet2.com plans to increase its schedule by 10% compared to summer 2025, providing 560,000 tickets across its UK network. This growth is largely driven by the addition of a new base at London Gatwick, from which the airline will operate five weekly flights to Alicante.
The new connection complements existing services to Luton and Stansted, where Jet2 already operates. With these expansions, Jet2.com will offer direct flights to all 14 of its UK bases, reaching up to 99 weekly flights—up from 93 last year. Alicante-Elche will rank as the airline’s third busiest airport in Spain, behind Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife.
In 2025, Jet2.com carried over 655,000 British passengers to the province, totalling nearly 1.3 million round-trip travellers.
Vueling, the second-largest airline at Alicante, is also boosting capacity, with 1.6 million seats planned—a growth of 18% over 2025. The airline is expanding its international network with 16 routes, including new flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris-Orly, and North African cities such as Tangier, Oran, Algiers, and Constantine.
The airline is also increasing frequencies on popular routes, such as London Gatwick (+24%), Amsterdam (+28%), and Brussels (+9%), while domestic routes to Bilbao, Tenerife North, Ibiza, Gran Canaria, Barcelona, Mallorca, and Santander are also seeing significant capacity increases.
Jet2.com and Vueling’s expansions are part of a broader trend of growth at the airport, supported by rising British tourism and strong demand for international and domestic connections.
Alicante-Elche is positioning itself as a year-round hub for leisure and business travellers across Europe and North Africa.
Further increases are expected once Ryanair and easyJet reveal their summer 2026 schedules. Ryanair, the leading airline at the airport, has proposed 90 routes for summer 2025, expecting 5.3 million passengers—a 3–4% increase over the previous season.
Its network includes flights to major UK cities, Eastern European capitals, and domestic destinations such as Barcelona, Mallorca, Ibiza, Lanzarote, and Tenerife.
EasyJet is also expanding, offering 1.7 million seats—a rise of 11%—including new routes to Athens and Naples.
With these combined expansions, Alicante-Elche Airport is set to experience another record-breaking summer, reinforcing its role as a key gateway for UK tourists and international travellers while supporting continued growth in both domestic and international connectivity.
