In 2023, Asturias airport will have the largest offer of direct flights to international destinations in its history. At the end of April, the region will have non-stop connections with eleven destinations in eight countries, to which another more than likely connection with Venice would have to be added.
The routes already in operation to Paris, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Rome and Dublin will be joined by connections with Milan-Bergamo and Lisbon, which Volotea will start operating at the end of March.
To these will be added the arrival in Asturias of the German airline Lufthansa, which will connect the Asturian airport with Frankfurt and Munich from April 23.
And the regional government wants to launch an administrative process that allows direct flights this summer between Asturias and Venice.
Investment of the Government of Asturias to improve the air connection in the region
This growth of direct routes from Asturias to international destinations comes after the investment made by the Government of Asturias of almost nine million euros in a public tender for air promotion. An investment designed, among other things, to favor the economic development of Asturias and the arrival of investments.
The contest was won by Ryanair, Vueling and Volotea. The first allocated the aid to offer, from November 2022, flights to Düsseldorf, Brussels and Rome, to which it added those to Dublin and London Stansted airport. Vueling connects the region with Paris, Amsterdam and London Gatwick, while Volotea will start in March with routes to Lisbon and Milan.
And thanks to this regional government plan, the Asturias airport closed 2022 with a total of 1,454,763 passengers, 2.6% more than in 2019. 106,405 passengers were foreigners. This consolidation is due to the dynamism shown by the recovery of international traffic, according to AENA.
In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asturian airport was used by 1,417,912 travelers. Of these, only 4% had an international route to or from. That year, the region only had one fixed international destination, London, to which were added the summer flights from Volotea to Venice and Munich.
The 1.5 millionth traveler arrived for the first time in 2007 and only visited again a year later. It is foreseeable that by the end of 2023, that figure will have been far exceeded.
In the national offer of the Asturias airport, in addition to the already existing routes that will continue throughout the year to Madrid, Barcelona, Mallorca, Alicante, Valencia, Malaga, Seville, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Tenerife and Lanzarote, those of Murcia, Menorca and Ibiza and also, in all probability, Granada.
Asturias thus reaches 27 direct destinations to nine countries and improves its strategic connections.
Lufthansa arrives for the first time in Asturias
Since the end of April, Asturias will have five direct weekly flights to the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich, operated by Lufthansa. Both are the company’s main logistics centers and two of the largest in Europe.
The main German airline arrives in our region for the first time and does so without financial support, neither public nor private.
These two new routes from Asturias to international destinations represent a giant leap in improving connectivity in our region. The arrival of Lufthansa will offer Asturias a global connection with more than 200 destinations around the world, through the business group itself, its partners and Star Alliance.
Asturias will finally have global connectivity; With a single hop, through the flight connection centers in Frankfurt and Munich, we will be able to reach a greater number of destinations”, says Jorge García, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Mobility and Territory of the Government of Asturias.
These connections operated by Lufthansa will contribute to economic development and will also strengthen the Asturias Paraíso Natural brand in all destinations in the airline’s network.
An airport that is the protagonist of life in Asturias
The airport is “a very important player in life in Asturias, a fundamental player in contributing to its development,” says Carlos San Martín, who was its director for the last thirteen years.
«The region has great potential, not only at the tourism level, but also as a business opportunity. Those are the singularities: that it is a very important player in the development of the destination and the great involvement of the set of institutions that see that the airport is strategic, “says San Martín.
