Alicante–Elche Airport HistoryEl Altet airport opened on 4 May 1967, replacing the older aerodrome La Rabassa that had served Alicante since 1936. It took its name after the El Altet area (a part of Elche's countryside) where it was built. The first commercial flight that landed in the airport was Convair Metropolitan by Aviaco. Iberia established a regular connections Alicante–Madrid and Alicante–Barcelona in November 1969. In early 1970s passengers' traffic reached 1 million, which prompted a construction of a new passenger terminal. In 1980 the runway was extended to three kilometres.The next renovation took place during the 1990s. A new office building together with operation and business centres were constructed. For the first time, five air bridges were installed to facilitate boarding.In 2011, the new terminal was opened at the airport increasing the annual airport capacity to 20 million passengers per year. All flights arrive and depart from this new terminal. Terminals 1 and 2, which were in service before the opening of the new terminal, are currently closed. Works however will not be completed until 2014, as plans are to construct a connecting hallway between the new terminal and terminals 1 and 2 that will allow to exploit the passenger space of all terminals.Historically, up until 2003, Iberia was the leading airline at the airport. With the decline of conventional airlines, in 2004 low-cost EasyJet took the lead. In 2007, Ryanair, the largest European low-cost airline established a base in Alicante. It has become the leading carrier at the airport in 2009, and by 2011 it has increased its presence further with eleven aircraft based, 62 routes, and more than 3 million passengers. However, from the end of October 2011, Ryanair has cut 31 routes due to disagreement with AENA on the usage of air bridges at the new terminal (before, they would always unload on the tarmac because it is cheaper but the owners of the airport want all planes to use the air bridges in the new building and not unload on the tarmac).