Alicante Airport: Italian inspiration and train over plane!

Italian inspiration

Starting in April, Alicante province and Rome will be more accessible with the reopening of a flight route operated by Wizz Air, offering three weekly flights.

The introduction of this flight route by Wizz Air, a low-cost Hungarian airline and the second-largest airline in Italy, presents a valuable opportunity to increase tourist inflow from Rome.

The Director of Alicante’s Tourist Board, Jose Mancebo emphasised that this route, in addition to those already operated by other airlines, underscores their commitment to the Italian market.

The Hungarian airline’s service doubles the accessibility for Italian tourists, particularly those from Rome, one of Italy’s largest metropolitan areas, to visit the Costa Blanca.

Turespaña in Rome, the Spanish tourism board’s office located in central Piazza di Spagna, collaborated on this initiative by providing conference space.

The director confirmed that a recent presentation in Rome, conducted in both Italian and English with collaboration from Wizz Air, aims to increase awareness and interest among Roman and Italian visitors and reestablish connections with this market.

With a metropolitan population of 4,357,000, Rome residents are motivated to travel for rest, leisure, and business, with 50 per cent seeking sun and beach destinations.

Train over plane

The Spanish Government is proposing to reduce short flights, like the one between Alicante and Madrid, to cut down on CO2 emissions from aviation in a bid to help the environment.

They want to encourage people to take trains for trips under two and a half hours if there’s a rail option available.

The Alicante-Madrid route does fit this criteria, but it might be saved due to a loophole as there might be exceptions for flights connecting to international routes through major airports.

Aena, the airport operator, says the Alicante-Madrid route should not be affected much because most flights between the two cities are used as connections for international travel.

Even though Alicante-Elche airport had a record number of passengers in 2023, mainly from international flights, it’s expected to break that record this year.

However, the majority of these passengers are from international flights, with only a small portion coming from domestic flights, including those from Madrid.