The president of German airline TUI, Michael Frenzel, visited the new terminal of the El Altet Airport in Alicante last Monday. This new terminal, which should be finished in March 2011, will double the capacity of the airport.
Frenzel was shown around the new terminal by the director of El Altet, Santiago MartÃnez-Caba, who gave him a thorough tour of the new installations. MartÃnez-Caba pointed out that the work was on Schedule. (TIU also has a division for cruise liners, and they are studying the port of Alicante as a possible port of call.)
The enlargement of El Altet is costing 670 million euros which are being paid by the central government of Spain. The number of travellers using the airport is forecast to increase from 12.2 million passengers a year to some 20 million. El Altet will grow in size to 333,5000 square metres, six times bigger than its present size. The number of check in desks will increase from 53 to 96, and passport control points from 17 to 32. The number of boarding gates will triple, from 5 to 15.
The car park will also grow, from 64,606 square metres to 122,5000, enabling 4,200 cars to be parked there.
The new terminal looks very monumental, with its 20 domes, 8 floors, arrival and departure lounges and 46,000 square metres. The boarding area will have 7,624 metres space for commercial purposes, and 26 boarding gates.
Also, AENA have incorporated a new automatic system to check luggage, which will speed up and improve security checks.
All this is just after El Altet ends the best summer of its history, with a record number of flights using its installations. Ryanair is one of the carriers which has brought the highest number of passengers to the airport.
El Altet was the fifth busiest airport in Spain over the summer months of June, July and August, after Gran Canaria, Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga. August was the busiest month, with over one million passengers passing through El Altet.
The Ministry of Public Works plans to hire an army of staff to become hostesses, pilots, passengers, signalers, waiters etc for the new terminal.
The opening of new airport of El Altet will, on the other hand, signifies the closure of two existing terminals for subsequent reform. It was initially planned to connect the T-1 and T-2 with the new building, but the crisis has forced the architects to reconsider, and it has been decided that the new terminal building is large enough to deal with the quality and speed of today's traffic.
Despite the increase in air traffic in August, the number of British travellers went down b y 8%, which has been blamed on the crisis. Spanish travellers increased by 8.2%, many travelling on the new cheap flights offered by Ryanair. This airline, and Air Berlin were also responsible for increased traffic to Germany (101,080 passengers) and the Norwegian passenger increases, which are about to overtake the Netherlands and Ireland.
The shops and restaurants which will be opening in the new terminal include: Burger King, Quique Dacosta for top quality cuisine, Valor Chocolates and Rodilla Sandwiches. El Corte Ingles will be selling shoes and toiletries. There will also be a Swaroski Jewellers.
