Answers big demand

SOME outsized aircraft are occupying the runway at Alicante Airport this summer.

TUI, the German tour operator which includes Thomson Fly, and Norwegian Airlines are chartering the giant Boeing-787 Dreamliners for their respective routes between Alicante, the UK and Oslo.

The aircraft, more often used for long-haul flight, carry 323 passengers and have a fuel range of 14,000 kilometres. They are gentle giants, however, and are the least noisy aircraft now in use thanks to their high tech design and, doubtless, their €240 million cost.

TUI and Norwegian are using the giant planes as part of their modernisation strategies but also to cope with this summer’s huge demand for flights to the Costa Blanca, said sources at Spain’s airports authority AENA.

Brexit or no Brexit, tourism from the UK has risen by 20 per cent this year and the extra-capacity aircraft are necessary to cope with the increase.