On Sunday, 30th March, El Altet Airport in Elche opened for the summer season with 141 direct services to about 30 countries, three more than the previous year, including connections to Greece, Moldova, and Serbia. This coincided with the time change.

Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport will host 29 aircraft during the 2025 summer travel season, which runs through to October 26th. Additionally, the airport serves up to 31 airlines.

With 25 direct itineraries, the UK has once again emerged as the nation with the most connections at El Altet Airport this summer. Second place goes to Germany, where there are about fifteen direct flights.

Yesterday, Monday 31st March, three new routes were introduced. Two are run by Ryanair, with connections to Poland and Austria, and one by EasyJet, which links Elche Airport with Athens.

Additionally, a new route to Linz, Austria, run by low-cost airline Ryanair, will be introduced today Tuesday, April 1st. Jet2 will start operating a new connection to London Luton on Thursday.

Next month, connections will be added to Bordeaux and Chisinau, the capital of Moldova; flights to Belgrade will be added beginning in June; and in July, a route to the Channel Island of Guernsey will be introduced.

Airlines have booked 14.7 million seats at Elche airport between arrivals and departures, which is 3.2% more than what was planned for last summer and 6% more than what was really used.

The state of the solar lamps in different residential areas has been thoroughly examined by the Calpe City Council. In order to confirm their correct operation, this study was carried out in cooperation with the lighting manufacturer and the contracting firm, Sociedad Ibérica de Construcciones Eléctricas, SA (SICE).

Visual checks and functional tests were conducted during the inspections, which were conducted on February 3rd, 5th, 11th, and 18th and March 3rd, 10th, and 11th, 2025. The lights were made to turn on using a remote control provided by the manufacturer.

Out of the 366 solar streetlights that were examined, 20 were found to be stolen, while 32 were found to be malfunctioning. The contracting business will need to examine 29 of these 32 in further detail in order to decide what repairs are required. In other words, the business needs to fix the streetlights that aren’t functioning right now. Twenty streetlights have already been reported stolen.

Public illumination in all 75 residential neighbourhoods is the aim

The Calp City Council will continue to keep an eye on the facilities’ state and will mandate that the contractor complete the tasks required to guarantee the municipality’s solar lighting system operates as intended. Similarly, the appropriate steps will be taken to stop more vandalism that could harm these infrastructures.

Municipal services are already working on a new contract to enhance the current service and continue putting illumination in additional locations. The tender price for the new contract will be €150,000.

In order to keep enhancing public lighting in these locations, this gives the Urban Development Lighting Plan continuity. The City Council wants to make sure that all urban developments have public lighting by putting new lighting plans into action. It should be mentioned in this context that Calpe has 75 urban developments inside its municipal limits, some of them are from the 1960s and 1970s, and as a result, their infrastructure has deteriorated.

“The report on the state of the solar streetlights that the City Council has been installing over the last three years is good news,” said Mayor Ana Sala. We’ll keep getting better. A report has been filed regarding the theft of a few streetlights. Since other streetlights are still covered under warranty, they must be fixed. We will request that the business chosen to do this installation fix them as quickly as possible. In addition, we want to spend €150,000 on new streetlights and the upkeep that goes along with them in residential areas where lighting is more problematic. In the upcoming months, we want to keep making investments in this field. We will remember these residential places.

Yesterday, Monday 31st March, a scooter driver and a tram on Line 2, which runs between Alicante and San Vicent del Raspeig, collided near the station’s entrance in the San Vicent del Raspeig municipality.

The driver of the two-wheeler was conscious at the time of the crash, according to FGV. Emergency personnel have been alerted to the area in order to treat the injured party.

Trains on Line 2 were delayed by the accident, which happened shortly after 3 p.m., and they didn’t resume regular service until 4 p.m.

According to the same sources, FGV is examining the cameras, and all evidence points to the scooter driver running the red light.

This is the second time a tram and a scooter rider have been involved, both on the same line and in essentially the same location. In the University neighbourhood, close to the retail centre, a car struck a 32-year-old man who was riding a scooter last Friday, 28th March, as we reported here https://costablancadaily.com/news/2025/03/29/scooter-hit-by-a-tram-in-sant-vicent/