Passenger traffic in the Aena network fell by 14.3% during the first week of March (from 1 to 7 March) after the drop in the load factor towards the end of February due to the spread of Covid-19.
Given this situation, this fall is expected to be substantially more pronounced throughout March, although it is still too early to estimate the scale of the final impact. Forthcoming data will be updated with the full month's information.
February's figures
The airports in the Aena network handled more than 16.9 million passengers in February 2020, 4% more than in the same month in 2019 and in spite of the drop in the load factor towards the end of the month due to the spread of Covid-19.
The total number of travellers came to precisely 16,904,590, of which 16,817,978 were commercial passengers with 10,874,015 on international flights, 3% more than in February 2019, and 5,943,963 on domestic flights, up by 5.4%.
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport had the highest number of passengers in February at 4,396,631, which is a 6% increase over the same month in 2019. It was followed by Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat with 3,280,937 (+0.4% more), which was adversely impacted by the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress.
They were followed by Málaga-Costa del Sol with 1,126,766 (+7.1%), Gran Canaria with 1,123,522 (-0.2%), Tenerife Sur with 923,749 (-3.1%), Palma de Mallorca with 917,291 (+2.4%) and Alicante-Elche with 847,526 (+8.3%).
In the first two months of the year passenger traffic rose by 3.2% with a total of 33,886,751 passengers going through the airports in Aena’s network.
As for the number of operations, there were 158,580 aircraft movements in Aena’s airport network in February, 2.8% more than in the same month in the previous year.
The airport with the highest number of movements was Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas with a total of 31,477 (+4.3%), followed by Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat with 22,992 flights (+1.3%); Gran Canaria with 9,826 (-5.2%); Málaga-Costa del Sol with 8,457 (+3.9%); Palma de Mallorca with 7,950 (+0.2%); Alicante-Elche with 5,947 (+5.3%); and Tenerife Sur with 5,774 (-3.4%).
In January and February 2020, the number of operations at all the airports in the Aena network came to 315,136, 0.4% more than in the same period in 2019.
In February 83,588 tons of freight were carried which is a 6.6% increase compared to the same month in 2019.
The four airports with the highest freight traffic were Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas with 45,075 tons (9.8%); Zaragoza with 13,672 tons (-2.2%); Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat with 13,509 tons (+9.3%); and Vitoria with 4,999 tons (+1.7%).
In the first two months of the year freight traffic handled by the airports in Aena’s network increased by 9.5% up to 170,545 tons.