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Date Published: 17/09/2026

Alicante Airport heads for 20 million passengers after record August

The Costa Blanca gateway has already handled almost 15 million passengers this year

Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport is heading towards another record year after handling more than 2.3 million passengers in August alone.

A total of 2,337,378 passengers passed through the Costa Blanca airport during the month, an 11.4% increase on August 2025, according to Aena figures.

That takes the total number of passengers handled between January and August to 14,739,523, up 9.9% on the same period last year.

The airport's all-time annual record stands at 19.9 million passengers, set in 2015, but with four months of the year still to go, 2026 could see the 20 million mark broken for the first time.

Passenger numbers have exceeded one million in each of the final four months of the year since 2024, while flight activity is also climbing. Alicante Airport handled 92,328 aircraft movements during the first eight months of 2026, up 10.1% year-on-year. August alone saw 14,069 movements, an 11.7% increase.

International passengers continue to make up the vast majority of traffic. There were 2,085,186 international passengers in August, up 12.3% on the same month last year.

British travellers once again topped the list by a huge margin, with around 800,000 passengers travelling between the UK and Alicante. Germany followed with approximately 152,000, while the Netherlands and Poland each accounted for around 125,000.

Domestic traffic also increased, reaching 251,109 passengers, up 4.6%.

Alicante Airport is growing considerably faster than the Aena network as a whole. Spanish airports handled 34.9 million passengers in August, an annual increase of 4.7%, while Alicante recorded growth of 11.4%.

It was also the fastest-growing of Spain's five busiest airports in August. Madrid grew 4.8%, Barcelona 4.6%, Palma 2.3% and Málaga 6.6%.

The surge comes as Alicante Airport prepares for a major expansion. DORA III has allocated an initial €868 million for the terminal at El Altet, as part of a project with an estimated total investment of €1.154 billion.

Image: Archive

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