JD Wetherspoon today announced the location of its first pub to open in continental Europe – Alicante Airport in Spain.
The venue, which will be named Castell de Santa Bàrbera, is set to welcome punters from the end of January and will be located in the airside area of departures.
The new-build pub at Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez Airport will be open from 6am to 9pm each day and will have almost 1,000 sq ft of customer space on one level.
It will also feature an external terrace with customer seating, with food served at all times up to an hour before closing.
The menu will include many meals available in Wetherspoon pubs in the UK, including breakfast dishes, burgers and pizzas.
But local dishes including garlic prawns and Spanish omelette are also set to feature.
Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin told the Daily Mail today: ‘We are very much looking forward to opening our first overseas pub.
‘We believe it will be popular with people travelling home from Alicante Airport.
An artist’s impression of the new Castell de Santa Bàrbera pub at Alicante Airport in Spain
The pub is set to open at the end of January at Alicante Airport (artist’s impression pictured)
The venue will open at Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez Airport in January (file picture)
‘We aim to open a number of pubs overseas in the coming months and years, including those at airports.’
Sir Tim revealed in January that Wetherspoon was considering opening its first pubs abroad in some of Britons’ favourite European holiday hotspots.
The pub chain has been eyeing up resorts popular with UK tourists in Spain – but confirmed at that time that it would not be considering China.
Sir Tim said he was looking at franchises abroad after a series of successful partnerships in Britain with Haven holiday parks and the universities of Hull and Newcastle.
The business is expected to target hot locations where the Wetherspoon brand is already well-known, but could also look at winter sun destinations.
The Watford-based company has never previously opened a pub outside the UK and Ireland.
However, there is a copycat bar in Pattaya city in Thailand called ‘Witherspoons’ serving English breakfasts and cheap beer to Brits looking for a slice of home.
Earlier this month Wetherspoon reported growing sales but said it was cautious ahead of the upcoming Budget, with recent Government policies already sending costs soaring.
The group, which operates nearly 800 pubs across the UK, said like-for-like sales lifted 3.7 per cent in the first 14 weeks of its financial year, to November 2.
This is up from growth of 3.2 per cent in the first few weeks.
It saw bar sales rise 5.7 per cent, food lift 0.9 per cent and sales from slot and fruit machines jump 8.9 per cent, but hotel room sales fell 6.3 per cent.
Sir Tim revealed earlier this month the group was seeing a surge in staff costs following recent policy changes, which is ‘dramatically widening the pricing differential between pubs and supermarkets, to the anger and consternation of customers’.
A 10 per cent wage rise will increase the cost of a pint by about 15p in a pub compared with about 1.5p per pint in a supermarket, according to Sir Tim.
Wetherspoon employed an average of nearly 42,100 staff across its pubs and head office over 2025.
Sir Tim also recently said increases to national insurance contributions and wages were adding about £60million to the chain’s yearly costs, while it was also facing an impact from energy charges and new packaging taxes.
