Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport
international airport in Alicante, Spain
Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (IATA: ALC, ICAO: LEAL) is an international airport located about nine kilometres (5+1⁄2 miles) southwest of the city of Alicante and about ten kilometres (six miles) east of the city of Elche in Spain. Alicante–Elche is the busiest airport in south-eastern Spain and serves both the southern part of the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia.
The airport is a base for easyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Ryanair and Vueling. Passenger traffic increased significantly in the 2010s, beating its own yearly record from 2013 to 2019. In 2024 it set a record at 18.3 million passengers. It is the largest airport in the Valencian Community (well ahead of Valencia and Castellón), 5th busiest airport in Spain and 31st busiest in Europe. Up to 80% of all passenger flights are international. The largest numbers of passengers arrive from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Norway and Sweden. Popular domestic destinations are Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela.
History
Foundation and early years
El Altet airport opened on 4 May 1967, replacing the older aerodrome La Rabassa that had served Alicante since 1936.
The public source identifies “Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport” as international airport in Alicante, Spain. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alicante, Elche and Miguel.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport”, the useful work is to connect “international airport in Alicante, Spain” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q849314. VIAF identifies the subject as 262903882. The Library of Congress control number is n98102560. Authority coordinates are 38.282, -0.558. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013, 2019, 2024 and 1967.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport primary sources, Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport archive and Alicante research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.