The coronavirus pandemic has taken a bitter toll on Spanish airports. The aerodromes of the Aena network closed 2020 with 76 million passengers, 72.4% less than the previous year. These are traffic levels from 30 years ago, coinciding with the creation of Aena, when in 1990 73.5 million passengers were counted.
In 2020, international travelers decreased by 77.8% (33.7 million) while those on domestic flights did so by 60.6% (41.9 million). In the whole of the year, 1.1 million flights were operated, 53.4% less than in 2019, and 787,848 tons of goods were transported, 26.3% less.
Traffic was concentrated in the first three months of the year, before governments around the world, including Spain, decreed lockdowns and travel was restricted to a minimum since mid-March. Thus, 55.2% of passengers have concentrated in January, February and March, although even in that first quarter there were 20% fewer travelers than in the same period of 2019.
As of June, with the end of the confinements, traffic gradually recovered, but the measures adopted by governments such as those of the United Kingdom and Germany limiting trips abroad or declaring quarantines for citizens who wanted to travel to Spain again sank the flights in summer until reaching a record drop of 81.9% in October. In December, there was a slight rebound with an increase of 39% compared to November but a drop of 79% compared to December 2019.
By airports
The Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport registered the highest number of passengers in the network with 17.1 million, which represents a decrease of 72.3% compared to 2019. It was followed by the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport, with 12 , 7 million (-75.8%); Palma de Mallorca, with 6.1 million (-79.4%); Malaga-Costa del Sol, with 5.2 million (-74%); Gran Canaria, with 5.1 million (-61.3%); Alicante-Elche, with 3.7 million (-75.1%); Tenerife South, with 3.4 million (-69.6%) and Tenerife North, with 2.8 million (-52.1%).
