Aena network airports have recovered more than 50% of their pre-pandemic passenger traffic in July with 15,138,997 travellers. The number of operations reached 76.1% of 2019 levelswith 183,267 aircraft movements, down 23.9%. The airport that recorded the highest number of movements in July was Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas with a total of 23,192 and a fall of 40.5% compared to July 2019. It was followed by Palma de Mallorca with 22,761 flights (-20.7%); Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat with 19,747 (-40.6%); Málaga-Costa del Sol with 11,799 (-25.8%); Ibiza with 11,645 (-4.9%); Gran Canaria with 8,276 (-18.8%); Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández with 6,713 (-39.3%); Valencia with 6,099 (-18%); Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna with 5,796 (-14.5%) and Menorca with 5,022 (0%).
Aena has all the terminals of its airports in service in response to the rise in demand during the summer season and after some of them were closed due to the drop in passenger traffic when travel restrictions were introduced. With the full reopening of its infrastructures, Aena is now providing service to airlines so that they can operate their routes with guaranteed service quality and compliance with health measures.
Passenger traffic
Out of the total number of travellers registered in July, 15,075,948 were commercial passengers with 6,675,538 on domestic flights, 21.7% fewer than in July 2019, and 8,400,410 on international flights, down by 59.6%.
In July, the recovery trend that has been underway since May continued. Progress in rolling out vaccination programmes in Spain and in other countries where travellers come from coupled with developments in the epidemiological scenario have led to greater recovery in passenger demand and also in the airlines’ offering.
Traffic by airports
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport had the highest number of passengers in the seventh month of the year at 2,555,760, which is a 57% decrease compared to July 2019. It is followed by Palma de Mallorca with 2,432,667 (-42.2%); Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat with 2,271,991 (-57.6%); Málaga-Costa del Sol with 1,139,012 (-48.9%); Ibiza with 925,230 (-30.6%); Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández with 748,456 (-56.5%); Gran Canaria with 659,133 (-38.3%) and Valencia with 539,668 (-37.2%).
Freight traffic
In terms of cargo traffic, 84,468 tons went through Aena’s network of airports, 4.6% less than in 2019. The airport that recorded the highest freight traffic was Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas at 45,708 tons, 1.5% less than in 2019. It is followed by the airports of Zaragoza, with an increase of 11.7% (14,328 tons); Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat handled 11,836 tons (-24.9%) and Vitoria, -4.3% (6,014 tons).
Given that the state of emergency declared in Spain in 2020 lasted until 21 July, leading to the lockdown of the entire country and consequently a ban on all non-essential journeys, and that 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 116.6% more in passenger traffic, 54.7% more in operations and 42.5% more in freight.)