Airlines have scheduled 217.2 million seats in Aena network airports for the summer season, which begins on 31 March and runs until 26 October 2019. This is a 6.1% rise compared to the same period in the previous year. The number of scheduled movements is up by 4.3% with over 1.2 million commercial passenger operations.

The data reflected in this Note correspond to the schedule of the airlines for the summer season, which will begin next Sunday 31 March. It is necessary to take into account that these data indicate the current scheduling of seats and movements of the airlines where usually there are variations, as air transport is a dynamic sector. This fact, together with the load factor which is also subject to variations, has an effect on the evolution of the real passengers, which is not the purpose of this information.

It should be noted that although the 2019 summer season totals 30 weeks compared to 31 in 2018, the data are based on a standard 30-week season so the figures have been adjusted to offset the effect of the additional summer season week in 2018.

As for the number of routes (the ones with 30 or more departure movements), airlines have scheduled 2,996 during the new summer season which is 42 more than in the summer season in 2018.

Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport maintains growth in the number of its scheduled seats as they go up by 8.2% to 45.6 million. Meanwhile at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport airlines are planning to offer over 41 million seats, 6.4% more than in the same period last year.

Palma de Mallorca Airport has 29.6 million seats on offer, a 5.6% rise. It is followed in terms of number of scheduled seats by Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport at 16 million, an additional 7.1%; Alicante-Elche, which has 12 million seats, 10.1% more; and Ibiza, with 8.6 million, up by 3.9%.

In terms of percentage increases in the number of seats provided by airlines there has been outstanding performance by Melilla (+38.2%, with 400,000 seats); Vitoria (+35.7%, with 126,000 seats), Badajoz (+23.1%, with 55,000 seats), Seville (+19.1%, with more than 5.2 million seats), and A Coruña (+12.9%, with over one million seats).

By areas

By geographical areas, the increase in the offer with Africa stands out, which has seen growth coming to 25.7% with 3.5 million seats scheduled for the summer season in 2019, along with growth with Asia-Pacific, which is maintained with a rise standing at 16.5% and close to 1.1 million scheduled seats. The commitment to the American market is also on the up with 14.6% more seats provided to North America (more than 4.5 million) and 14.7% more seats to Latin America (more than 6.8 million). The increase for the Middle East amounts to 12.4% with over 3 million scheduled seats.

As for Europe, it is still the area with the highest traffic where airlines have scheduled 133.4 million seats, a 5% rise. All these figures confirm the growth trend in international tourism.

Turning to domestic traffic, it is also up by 5.7% compared to last year’s summer season with 64.8 million seats on flights to Spanish airports.

By countries

After Spain, the country where airlines are offering the largest number of seats for the summer season 2019 is the United Kingdom at about 37 million, a 6.8% increase. This rise is especially significant given the devaluation of the pound and the unclear legal framework resulting from the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

It is followed by Germany, with 23.5 million seats (a fall of 2.8%); Italy, with 12.6 million (+6.6%); France, with about 12 million (+10.9%); the Netherlands, with 6.9 million (+2.9%), and Switzerland, with 5.5 million (+5.6%). In terms of percentage increases by countries, Portugal has seen an 18.1% increase in its supply of scheduled seats which now come to 4.3 million while the United States has 4 million seats (up by 14.8%).

In addition, some significant long-haul routes have also been opened, including from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport to Medellin and Panama (Air Europa), Boston (Norwegian) and Guayaquil (Plus Ultra), and from Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat to Mexico (Aeroméxico), Santiago de Chile and New York (Level), Chicago (Norwegian) and Toronto (WestJet Airlines).