The airports of Aena's network in Spain have closed the eighth month of 2024 with an all-time record number of passengers, thus maintaining the upward trend since the beginning of the year and for most of last year.
Summer 2024: the best in Aena's history, with no material operational disruptions
In the period from 1 June to 31 August, the airports of the Aena network in Spain handled 93,459,823 total passengers, 8.5% more than in the same period last year; 753,441 operations, 7.9% more than in 2023 and 313,131 tonnes of freight were transported, an increase of 22.0%.
The summer of 2024 (between 1 June and 31 August) has consolidated as the best in Aena's history in terms of passengers, operations and freight, to which the absence of material operational disruptions has contributed.
August Data
In August 2024, Aena received 32,116,068 passengers, 7.4%, more than in the same month of 2023; it handled 254,137 aircraft movements, 7.7% more than in 2023; and it transported 104,435 tonnes of cargo, up 20.3% on last year.
Of the total number of passengers in August, 32,045,304 were commercial passengers: 22,561,824 travelled on international flights, 9.6% more than in August 2023, while 9,483,480 travelled on domestic flights, 2.7% more than last year.
Until August, 208,167,961 passengers passed through Aena airports (10.1% more than in 2023), 1,737,210 aircraft movements were recorded (+8%) and 815,874 tonnes of cargo were transported, 19.8% more than in the same period of 2023. These data mean that, in the period accumulated 2024 between January and August 2024, all the airports in the Aena airport network in Spain have reached record figures in terms of passengers, operations and commercial freights.
Passengers
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport recorded the highest number of passengers in the eighth month of the year with 6,071,313, a growth of 9.2% compared with August last year.
This is followed by Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, with 5,415,504 (+8.9% compared with 2023); Palma de Mallorca, with 4,591,163 (+5%); Málaga-Costa del Sol, with 2,652,017 (+9.6%); Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, with 1,962,325 (+15.3%); Ibiza, with 1,464,683 (+2%); Gran Canaria, with 1,217,366 (+7.8%); Valencia, con 1,118,748 (+4.3%) and Tenerife Sur, with 1,098,803 passengers, 14.7% more than in August 2023.
In addition to Aena's network as a whole, total passenger records were surpassed at 8 airports: Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Ibiza, César Manrique-Lanzarote, Valencia, Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna, Menorca, El Hierro and Son Bonet.
And a record number of passengers in the month of August was broken at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, Ibiza, Gran Canaria, Valencia, Tenerife Sur, César Manrique-Lanzarote, Seville, Menorca, Bilbao, Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna, La Palma, Melilla, El Hierro, Córdoba and Son Bonet airports.
Operations
In terms of operations, the airport with the most movements in August was Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, with a total of 36,614 (+8.3% compared with 2023), followed by Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, with 32,120 flights (+7.6%); Palma de Mallorca, with 30,914 (+5.8%); Málaga-Costa del Sol, with 18,083 (+6.7%); Ibiza, with 12,693 (+1.4%); Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, 11,948 (+14.1%) and Gran Canaria, with 11,216 landings and take-offs (+6.3%).
In the eighth month of 2024, as well as in the network's history, August was the month with the most operations at fourteen airports: Palma de Mallorca, Málaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, Gran Canaria, Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna, Tenerife Sur, César Manrique-Lanzarote, Seville, Burgos, Córdoba, Logroño, Melilla, El Hierro and at the Ceuta Heliport.
And absolute record operations were achieved at three airports, namely Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna, Logroño and El Hierro.
Cargo
With regard to freight traffic, the airport with the highest cargo volume was Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, with 60,851 tonnes, 24.9% more than in the same month of 2023. It was followed by Zaragoza, with 17,782 tonnes (+33.3%); Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, which recorded 14,850 tonnes (+15.5%); and Vitoria, with 4,869 tonnes (-8.9%).