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Date Published: 23/03/2022

ARCHIVED - Norwegian airline selects Alicante-Elche Airport as one of its two bases in Spain

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The airport on the Costa Blanca will be "strategic" in the company's plans to recover growth in Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Norwegian airline selects Alicante-Elche Airport as one of its two bases in Spain

Norwegian airline, which has faced an extremely tough three years having been on the brink of bankruptcy in 2019, followed by the crippling consequences of the pandemic, is "starting to recover" and is planning to kickstart its regrowth with two bases in Spain, one of which will be Alicante-Elche Airport.

Last year, the firm announced its redundancy programme that affected 975 workers, but now Norwegian airline is confident the Costa Blanca airport will be "strategic" in its summer campaign.

The airport will be one of two bases in Spain, along with Malaga, with "three planes staying overnight every night", according to CEO, Geir Karlsen.

The likes of Ryanir and Vueling already have bases in Alicante, which are crucial to generating income for the airport, local hotels and tourist accommodation as well as generating jobs in both maintenance and ground staff.

And of course, the more aircraft based locally, the more routes for passengers.

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Norwegian currently connects Alicante with several European destinations, such as Oslo, Copenhagen, Bergen, Munich and London, and there are plans for links with Tromso and Stavanger.

Links with the Nordic destinations is, of course, important to the province due to the high number of Norwegian expats.

In 2019, 1,360,000 Norwegian airline passengers passed through Alicante-Elche Airport, but this figure slumped to 233,000 in 2020, due to the Covid crisis, and the company stopped operating.

Flights were resumed last summer when 266,000 passengers boarded flights to and from Alicante, and in January and February 2022 alone, the ariline transported 64,700 passengers, "a positive figure, particularly in low season", according to the airline.

Norwegian will operate 70 aircraft with 40 scheduled routes to Spain this summer, and there are plans to increase operations to 85 or 86 aircraft by 2023 - a far cry from the fleet of more than 150 aircraft it once had, but an increase its hoped with lift off activity on the Iberian Peninsula.

"It is an evaluation that we will make over the next year, it is still too early to say what effect it may have in Spain," added the Norwegian CEO, stressing that the fuel crisis is another factor that must be taken into consideration.

In 2021, Norwegian earned 185 million euros compared to a loss of 2.3 billion euros the previous year. The firm received 295 million euros in aid from the Norwegian state and won the backing of creditors and shareholders for a rescue plan, but ended up having to apply to the courts to start a reconstruction process to avoid bankruptcy.

The process gave the airline access to another 147 million euros state loan, but halted Norwegian's expansion from being the third largest low-cost airline in Europe.

Image: ALC Alicante Airport

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