The airports in the Aena network closed June with 9,266,794 passengers, 66% fewer than in the same month of 2019, along with 133,331 aircraft movements, 41% lower, and 78,413 tons of freight, a 1.4% rise. The airports of Zaragoza, with an increase of 69.9% (12,619 tons), and Vitoria, which was up by 17% (6,336 tons), performed especially well. However, the airport to record the highest cargo traffic was Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas at 42,233 tons and 4.5% less than in 2019. Meanwhile, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat handled 11,046 tons (-18.1%).
Operations back to almost 60% of pre-pandemic levels
As far as the number of operations is concerned, they almost reached 60% of pre-pandemic levels at 133,331 aircraft movements, down by 41%. The airport that recorded the highest number of movements in June was Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas with a total of 17,568 and a fall of 53.7% compared to June 2019. It was followed by Palma de Mallorca with 13,662 flights (-48.2%); Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat with 13,359 (-58.4%); Málaga-Costa del Sol with 7,912 (-45.4%); Ibiza with 6,825 (-34.6%); Gran Canaria with 6,381 (-32.6%); Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna with 4,946 (-21.6%) and Valencia with 4,316 (-37.6%).
Passenger traffic
Out of the total number of travellers registered in June, 9,215,536 were commercial passengers with 4,762,559 on domestic flights, 40% fewer than in June 2019, and 4,452,977 on international flights, down by 76.9%.
In June, traffic levels, mainly in terms of passengers, continued to be low due to the ongoing measures taken in various countries to deal with the spread of COVID-19. However, progress made in rolling out vaccination programmes both in Spain and other countries that tourists come from coupled with the evolution of the epidemiological scenario has led to a greater upturn in passenger demand and the airlines’ offering, which had already seen the first signs of recovery in May.
Traffic by airports
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport had the highest number of passengers in the sixth month of the year at 1,702,076, which is a 69.4% decrease compared to June 2019. It is followed by Palma de Mallorca, with 1,408,600 (-63.4%); Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat with 1,374,717 (-73.1%); Málaga-Costa del Sol with 645,820 (-68.6%); Ibiza with 517,556 (-56.1%); Gran Canaria with 472,590 (-51.8%); Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández with 405,799 (-73.6%) and Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna with 339,160 (-33.9%).
Given that the state of emergency declared in Spain in 2020 lasted until 21 June, leading to the lockdown of the entire country and consequently a ban on all non-essential journeys, and the pandemic also resulted in travel restrictions worldwide, comparison with 2020 figures has been dropped as they are not very representative (for example, with respect to 2020 the comparison is 779.4% more in passenger traffic, 205.5% more in operations and 73.3% more in freight).