A raft of new flights from Valencia Airport have been unveiled. The new routes will be rolled out from next month. Eugene Costello reports…
A raft of new flights from Valencia Airport have been unveiled. The new routes will be rolled out from next month. This comes following Aena’s announcement of a major upgrade to Valencia Airport with a €400 million budget. The figure dwarfs the €19.8 million budget allocated for Alicante-Elche Airport. The aim is to improve the capacity and passenger terminal experience.
It is timely. Last year, Valencia Airport surpassed its maximum capacity of 10.5 million passengers. This is around half of Alicante-Elche’s nearly 20 million passengers last years. That is itself astonishing growth, since Aena reported fewer than six million passengers as recently as 2021.
Aena has said that the upgrades are to improve passenger experience and to increase capacity. The aim is to ensure future growth.
Marián Cano García, the Generalitat Valencia’s minister for Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism, welcomed the news. However, she described the plans as “a step in the right direction” but “insufficient”. She has called for a bolder vision, including a second runway and a rail link to Alicante-Elche Airport.
New routes from Valencia Airport
First up, Reykjavik, Iceland, from budget Icelandic airline Play. Presently, one has to fly via a third country so this will be welcome news for those wishing to visit the beautiful Land of Ice and Fire. And since the flights will take place over the summer months, the chance to experience the midnight sun. And in the winter, the chance to see Nature’s light show, the Aurora Borealis.
Flights start in May and will leave Valencia on Tuesday nights at 10:45pm, returning from Keflavik Airport on Saturdays at around 3pm. Search engines suggest that return flights will cost under €300.
Next is Wonderful Copenhagen. The flight will be with Swedish Airline SAS and will bring the picture-postcard streets of the Danish capital within reach.
Flights will run from May to October. Again, they will be on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Search engines suggest that flights will cost a little over €200 return and will take place on Tuesday afternoons. Budget airline Norwegian also fly direct to Copenhagen.
And third up, Vilnius in Lithuania. Flights will be with airBaltic, the flag-carrier of Latvia, headquartered in Riga. Vilnius is the most populous Baltic city but even so has a population around two-thirds of Valencia. It is famed for its medieval Old Town. Think cobbled streets and squares, and Gothic churches.
Flights will be twice a week, priced from around €250 until September.