A LARGE number of UK travellers have helped take Alicante-Elche airport to a record January high with 958,088 passengers.

That’s the best-ever start to a year and 20.5% more than 12 months earlier when there were 795,148 travellers.

The comparison is even starker when looking at January 2019- over a year before the Covid pandemic struck- with the total up by 22.1%.

Last year saw the highest-ever passenger numbers for the airport at El Altet and the very early signs suggest that the 2023 figure will be smashed by December 31.

EasyJet will be opening a base this spring offering 10 routes to the UK and Europe covering 1.5 million seats over the summer season- 10% more than last year.

Rival low cost carrier Ryanair will also return to having a base at Alicante-Elche after withdrawing it over a decade ago in a row over using air bridges for passenger departures and embarkations.

The United Kingdom contributed the largest number of passengers last month with 287,555 travellers out of 805,602 international travellers.

The Netherlands were next- a long way behind- with 77,631; followed by Belgium with 63,598; Poland with 61,901; and Germany on 56,392.

Domestic travellers were up by 12.9%, coming at 151,379.

Alicante-Elche airport was the sixth busiest in the Aena network last month, overhauling Palma de Mallorca.

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