Alicante-Elche Airport

Between salt lakes, palm trees and the Mediterranean lies one of Europe’s hardest-working leisure airports. Alicante-Elche is the gateway to the Costa Blanca and, for many Britons, Scandinavians, Dutch, Belgians and Germans, the link to the vacation apartment or the winter quarters in the sun. For spotters that means: almost 20 million passengers a year, a single runway, one big terminal and an airline mix that sounds more Northern European than at almost any other Spanish airport. If you know the runway direction in use, you can fill a well-stocked logbook here with little effort.

From Rabasa to El Altet

Alicante’s aviation history doesn’t begin at today’s location. During the Spanish Civil War, the airfield Rabasa was created northwest of the city from 1936, at first purely military. Later civil aviation used it too, though irregularly and on a small scale: When Rabasa became a customs airport in 1951, the field counted just over 3,000 passengers in the whole year. For what was about to happen on the coast in the following decades, that was far too small.

With tourism on the Costa Blanca, the region needed a proper commercial airport. It was built on the flat coastal plain at El Altet, between Alicante and Elche, and opened on May 4, 1967. The rush came quickly: Already in the early 1970s the airport passed the mark of one million passengers, and in 1972 a new terminal building was added. In the 1990s a major rebuild followed, including a new control tower that is about 47 meters tall and still towers over the grounds today.

The most important turning point today came in 2011. After years at the capacity limit – a temporary Terminal 2 helped out in between – the Nueva Área Terminal, NAT for short, went into operation on March 23, 2011. The day after, all passenger operations moved over. The old terminals have not been used for passengers since. In 2013 the airport officially received the double name Alicante-Elche because it lies within the municipality of Elche, and in 2021 the name of the poet Miguel Hernández was added.

One runway between land and sea

The layout is hard to beat for simplicity. There is exactly one runway, the 10/28, 3,000 meters long and 45 meters wide. It runs roughly east-west: The western end points inland toward Elche and Torrellano, and the eastern end lies near the coast at El Altet. How the numbers in the designation come about is explained in the article on runway designations: “10” means the runway points at roughly 100 degrees, and “28” is the opposite direction at around 280 degrees.

According to Spanish specialist literature, only runway 10 has an instrument landing system (ILS), while approaches to 28 are flown with simpler procedures. For you as a spotter, that is mainly a hint that you should always check the landing direction live – the runway is the same, but the aircraft come from completely different sides depending on the direction.

A single runway has one big advantage for spotters: There is no guessing which of several runways is currently used for landings. The disadvantage is obvious – if the wind comes from the “wrong” direction, you suddenly find yourself on the departure side at your favorite spot. A look at a flight tracker before you set out settles that quickly; how to do it is in the article on flight tracking with ADS-B.

Runway direction in use: wind and sea breeze

As everywhere, aircraft take off and land into the wind. On the coast the sea breeze plays a big role, blowing from the sea onto the land during the day and often dying down or shifting in the evening. When which direction applies can therefore change over the course of the day. The airport does not publish fixed rules or official shares for the two directions – so don’t rely on rules of thumb, but on current weather reports for LEAL and a live flight tracker. You’ll find the basics in the article Understanding the runway direction in use.

Weather-wise, Alicante is a rewarding airport. The flat coastal plain means poor visibility is very rare, and fog is hardly an issue. The exception is heavy rain events, which can occur on the Mediterranean in late summer and fall: During a severe storm in the fall of 2019, the airport had to close for a time.

One terminal for everyone

Since 2011, passengers in Alicante have gone through a single large terminal building, the NAT. It was designed for about 20 million passengers a year – a mark the airport came very close to in 2025 with almost 19.95 million. The plans provide for the terminal to be expandable and for the grounds to have room later for a second runway and a satellite building. We are not aware of any concrete construction dates for this.

Because almost all traffic runs through this one building, apron positions are tightly occupied, especially at weekend peaks and in vacation season. A large share of passengers fly abroad, and with Great Britain one of the most important markets lies outside the Schengen area. Correspondingly many flights go through passport control.

Who lands in Alicante

Alicante is not a hub, but a large point-to-point airport. Well over four in five passengers fly internationally. The most important foreign markets are Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, along with Belgium, among others. In 2023 – we didn’t have newer route rankings – Manchester and London Gatwick led the international connections, followed by Amsterdam and Brussels. Domestically, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and Madrid dominate.

Ryanair as well as Vueling, Norwegian and easyJet maintain bases. From Great Britain, Jet2 and TUI Airways also come in large numbers, and from Scandinavia, besides Norwegian, SAS. From the Netherlands and Belgium you see Transavia and TUI fly Belgium, among others, and from Eastern Europe Wizz Air. From Germany, Eurowings flies, among others, joined by Spanish airlines like Volotea on domestic and European routes.

A note on currency: Which airline flies which route changes with every schedule. The list describes the typical picture as of October 2026 – next summer a new connection may be added or another dropped.

Aircraft picture: 737s and A320s – with many liveries

Widebody aircraft are the big exception in Alicante. The picture is shaped by narrowbody jets: above all the Boeing 737-800 of Ryanair, Jet2, Norwegian and many others, plus 737 MAX variants like the 737 MAX 8 and the 737-8-200 in the Ryanair group fleet. On the Airbus side you see the whole family from the A319 through the A320 and A320neo to the A321neo.

The appeal therefore lies less in the type than in the variety. On an ordinary morning, British, Norwegian, Eastern European, Belgian and Spanish airlines roll across the runway one after another, plus wet-lease aircraft and special liveries. Precisely because the types are so similar, it pays to learn the finer points: How to tell the A319, A320 and A321 apart with confidence is shown in the article Telling the A320 family apart.

Where you can spot in Alicante

To our knowledge, there is no official observation deck like at some German airports in Alicante. Spotting is done – as at most Spanish leisure airports – from public areas around the grounds. Where that makes sense at the moment depends mainly on the runway direction in use. Instead of concrete coordinates, we give you the logic by which you can find a spot yourself:

• Western runway end (toward Torrellano): With runway direction 10, landings come in here over the flat land. With runway direction 28, you see the takeoffs on this side, gaining altitude above you.
• Eastern runway end (toward the coast and El Altet): With runway direction 28, aircraft float in from the sea – the subject with the most vacation feeling. With runway direction 10, the jets take off here out over the water.
• Beside the runway: For taxiing movements and shots at liftoff, you need a vantage point with a view over the fence to the middle of the runway. North of the runway you have the sun more at your back during the day.

Around the airport there are country roads, commercial areas and fields. Park only where it is explicitly allowed, don’t enter private property and keep your distance from driveways and security areas. Before every outing, check current reports from the spotter community, because construction work and new barriers quickly change the situation at heavily used airport edges. What applies in Spain in general is summarized in the article Spotting in Spain.

Getting there without and with a car

The airport is connected almost exclusively by road; there is no train station at the terminal. The city bus line C-6 connects the airport with the center of Alicante and stops at the bus station and the train station, among others. Separate lines go to Elche, and there are intercity buses to resort towns like Benidorm and to Murcia. Taxis and ride services have designated areas at the terminal. Schedules and frequencies can change – check them before you travel.

A rail connection has been planned for years that would bring local and long-distance trains into an underground station under the terminal. When it will come is open. For spotters, a rental car therefore remains the most practical means of transportation, especially if you want to switch between the two runway ends depending on the runway direction in use.

Gear and light

In Alicante you don’t necessarily need the longest telephoto. At the runway ends the aircraft come in relatively low and close, and a zoom up to about 300 or 400 millimeters covers most situations. For shots across the grounds, more focal length helps – but here, in summer, heat haze stops you faster than the optics do.

Sun protection belongs in the camera bag: At many vantage points around the grounds there is hardly any shade, and on a July afternoon it gets really hot on the coastal plain. What else you should pack for a spotting day in the sun is in the article on plane spotting on vacation.

Season and daily rhythm

Like all leisure airports, Alicante has a clear summer peak. Unlike on many islands, though, winter doesn’t fall off a cliff: Many Britons, Scandinavians, Dutch and Germans own apartments on the Costa Blanca or spend the cold season there. That is why numerous airlines fly between November and March too, especially from Northern Europe. For spotters winter is therefore a real alternative – with lower, softer light and less heat haze.

The airport is open around the clock. Over the course of the day there are distinct waves when several based airlines start their rotations or come back. When exactly the peaks fall changes with the schedule – a look at the arrivals board or a flight tracker the day before saves you waiting time.

Growth at the capacity limit

The airport has been growing strongly since the pandemic. In 2019 it counted a good 15 million passengers, in 2024 about 18.4 million and in 2025 almost 19.95 million – an increase of about 8.5 percent. According to interim figures for 2026, growth continues. Alicante is thus approaching the capacity the NAT was designed for in 2011. The area kept free during planning for a second runway is so far only an option on paper.

Setbacks are part of the story too: In January 2020 a fire broke out in the terminal roof, the airport was closed for about a day, and many flights had to divert to other airports. A few weeks later came the collapse caused by the pandemic. Today’s record traffic is remarkable also because it was reached after this double low point.

Alicante compared

Within Spain, Alicante-Elche is among the five largest airports in Aena’s network. Compared directly with Palma de Mallorca, Alicante is smaller and more oriented toward Great Britain and Scandinavia, while Germany dominates on Mallorca. Málaga Airport on the Costa del Sol is the next big comparison candidate with a similar audience, and farther north on the coast lies Valencia Airport with more city-oriented traffic.

If you’re looking for long-haul and hub operations, head to Madrid-Barajas with spots like La Muñoza or to Barcelona-El Prat with the Mirador del Prat viewpoint. You’ll also find leisure aircraft against an ocean backdrop in the Canary Islands, for example at Playa Honda on Lanzarote.

Conclusion

Alicante-Elche Airport is not a spotter airport with a deck and an exhibition, but a big, sunny leisure airport with a clear structure: one runway, one terminal, many airlines from Northern and Western Europe. It’s precisely this simplicity that makes it pleasant – you only need to know from which direction the landings come, and you can plan around it.

Three things make the difference: keeping the runway direction in use and the sea breeze in view, avoiding the heat haze and respecting the rules around fences, fields and parking lots. Anyone who follows that takes home from a vacation on the Costa Blanca a logbook full of liveries from half of Europe.