Bigger is better - right?

On the 4th of May 1967 a Convair 440 Metropolitan, belonging to Aviaco, flew from Madrid with 44 passengers and landed at the Rabasa aerodrome. That marked the beginning of Alicante's commercial airport at Altet. Rabasa was previously a military airport and had very few facilities for passengers. They had to climb down steps to the apron then walk across the tarmac to the small terminal building

Forty years later, Altet is the sixth busiest airport in Spain with almost nine million passengers using it in 2006.

Those of you who have visited it recently will know that, starting in 2005, the airport is undergoing major extension works. Once these are complete the airport will have a capacity of 20 million passengers per year, a number that would have been impossible to dream of back in 1967.

By 2010; with the help of forty thousand tons of steel, concrete sufficient to fill to 193 Olympic swimming pools, enough marble to pave 14 football grounds and the work of more than 500 people Altet will become one of the most important airports in Spain.

The investment for the extension of the airport will be around 400 million euros. The revamped airport will have a six storey car park for four thousand cars and an extended terminal building for passengers with 92 check in desks and 16 telescopic footbridges to the aircraft.

I bet there will still be a queue for the Manchester flights though!!