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Date Published: 29/09/2026

Alicante airport just had its best summer ever and a long-awaited VIP lounge is finally on its way back

Record passenger numbers, a Wizz Air surge and a €6 million lounge renovation are all part of the story at Miguel Hernández this autumn

Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport has just wrapped up the best summer in its history. More than 6.8 million passengers passed through the terminal between June and August, up 11% on the same period last year, with over 41,500 commercial flights handled across those three months. Every month of 2026 has set records, but the summer peak was something else entirely.

The airport was already on course for 20 million passengers this year heading into the autumn and the summer figures have only reinforced that trajectory. British travellers remain the backbone of the operation, accounting for one in three passengers. Manchester was the busiest single route, with more than 297,000 travellers in summer alone, closely followed by London Gatwick. Six of the ten busiest routes connect with the UK.

Among the airlines, Ryanair led comfortably with nearly 2.76 million summer passengers, followed by EasyJet and Vueling. Jet2 came in fourth with 465,639 passengers. The standout performer, though, was Wizz Air, which almost doubled its passenger numbers year on year thanks to a push into Eastern and Central European routes. Poland was the fastest-growing market overall, up 32% to 366,000 passengers, while Italy jumped 38% to 284,000.

Those numbers sit alongside the €868 million expansion plan already approved for the terminal, and the broader winter route growth that was confirmed earlier this month. The picture being painted is of an airport in serious and sustained ascent.

Now there's another piece of news for regular travellers. Aena has launched a tender worth more than €1.2 million for furniture and fittings for the Ifach VIP lounge, the terminal's original premium space that has been closed since a fire in January 2020. Construction work to renovate the lounge, awarded to Acciona for €6.1 million, is due to begin on Wednesday October 15, having been delayed to avoid disrupting the summer season. The completed lounge is expected to open by December 2027.

The space, covering nearly 1,913 square metres, will include a catering area, showers, a meeting room, a children's area, a gaming zone, a wine bar, a reading area and an outdoor terrace. The current temporary Costa Blanca lounge will continue operating in the meantime.

Beyond the lounge, Aena is also progressing on a new taxiway, dual boarding systems at ten additional gates and a solar panel installation on the car park roof, part of a wider package of improvements totalling close to €33 million. The long-awaited rail link connecting Alicante and Elche via the airport is also edging forward, with the initial drafting contract now in its final stages.

For an airport that not long ago was firmly in Málaga's shadow, the momentum right now is hard to ignore.

Image: Aena

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