Spain’s third-busiest airport is about to get much bigger—and smarter. On 22 July the national sports daily AS broke the story that Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport will launch a €1.155 billion expansion programme in 2027, running through 2031, to prepare for the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES). The plan, which still needs final approval by Spain’s Council of Ministers before 30 September, includes a dedicated non-Schengen terminal fitted with 100+ e-gates, a centralised biometric border hall, additional jet bridges, a new VIP lounge and enlarged retail areas. The investment forms part of Aena’s DORA-3 infrastructure strategy and responds to rapid passenger growth (6.6 million travellers in Q1 2026, 33 % of them British). Airlines—including Ryanair and easyJet—had warned that Alicante lacked both staff and kiosks to process the facial-and-fingerprint checks that replace manual passport stamping under the EES. By building a purpose-built facility, airport authorities hope to cut average border-processing times for non-EU passengers from 45 minutes today to under 15 minutes at peak Easter-summer traffic. For corporates shuttling between the Costa Blanca’s tech parks and northern Europe, the upgrade promises shorter queues, more business-class capacity and fewer missed connections. Travel-management companies should update duty-of-care messages to reflect construction-phase gate changes (2027-2029) and potential night-time taxiway closures. HR teams relocating talent from the UK and US can reassure staff that the airport will be “EES-ready” well before the system becomes mandatory in late 2027. The announcement also signals Spain’s wider push to modernise border control ahead of ETIAS. Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat already have pilot biometric corridors; Málaga and Palma de Mallorca are next in line. Multinationals with large holiday-season travel flows should monitor Aena tender notices, as suppliers of self-service kiosks, cloud-based passenger flow analytics and privacy-by-design cameras will be in high demand.
Source: AS.com
