Faced with the request of the Generalitat Valenciana to expand the airports of Valencia and Alicante-Elx, the Government claims to have a plan. This was explained by the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, who yesterday at Fitur assured that “we are working to generate a future project to guarantee the sustainability of the Alicante and Valencia airports.” According to Bernabé, this proposal would be part of a “strategic plan” for the infrastructure that Aena already contemplates and in which Pedro Sánchez’s Executive is working “to make it so.”
Precisely the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, spoke this week about the expansion of airports. It was at the Europe Forum where he advocated promoting the development of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, something that he considers “a priority” instead of promoting the construction of a second airport for the capital. Likewise, this week he also opted to expand the third runway at the Barcelona-El Prat Airport.
The request to expand the Valencian aerodromes is one of the Valencian demands of the Consell at this fair and was repeated again this Thursday by the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, at the central event for the Valencian Community Day in Fitur, where he explained that Alicante has increased the number of passengers by 18% and that of Valencia, by 22%.
Both figures, which have allowed us to reach a record number of passengers at Valencian airports, are part of the balance of success with which the Valencian Community presents itself these days to the sector. Mazón highlighted that the Valencian territory has increased the number of tourists this year and that 2023 ended with close to 29 million visitors, and he further highlighted the fact that average spending has also increased.
“We have to provide a band and a red carpet for tourists, it is an old debate and that of mass or quality tourism. We are a sustainable destination and we can receive more, but we need the necessary infrastructure because we have plenty of talent,” he argued. Mazon.
According to the president, the objective is to achieve 30 million tourists, a horizon with which the sector and the previous Valencian Government team were already working by 2023. It is with this objective that the Consell is betting that there will be new lines – not yet revealed – and more connections, since “the new planes that are on the market want to land and take off in the Valencian Community.” Hence the request for the second runway at the Alicante-Elx airport and the expansion of Manises “as soon as possible, to prevent what happens with the port of Valencia and the connection of the Mediterranean corridor.
The presentation of the strategy for 2024 had been presented minutes before by the Minister of Tourism, Nuria Montes, who pointed out that the good result of the exercise is “the result of doing all the things of the greatest crisis ever experienced”, in reference to the pandemic . “Tourism is the engine of our economy and the challenge is to keep it that way,” added Montes, who placed the percentage that tourism represents in the Valencian GDP at 16%.