The Aena network registered 16.9 million passengers in the month of January, 2% more than in the same month of 2019
Both the airports and the tourism sector in general were on the verge of reaching the pre-pandemic figures in 2022, something that was not achieved due to the poor performance of the first quarter of the year, when the omicrom variant still conditioned travel. Nothing to do with the good records with which 2023 has begun, since in the month of January the pre-pandemic data was already exceeded in the Spanish airports of the Aena network.
According to data from the airport manager published this Monday, a total of 16.9 million passengers were registered in January in the Aena airport network, thus exceeding the data for the same month of 2019 by 2.1%, before the the pandemic would break out and all travel would be suspended. Compared to 2022, it represents an increase of almost 63% in the number of passengers.
In total, the number of movements (takeoffs and landings) was 156,500 in January, which brings the recovery level of activity to 98% compared to 2019, but improves the records of January 2022 by almost 19%.
The recovery has been complete in domestic travelers, with 6.13 million passengers, 7.3% more than before the pandemic. International flights remained 1% below 2019, with 10.72 million passengers, according to Aena figures.
The airport that registered the most passengers in January was Madrid-Barajas, with 4.4 million travelers, 1.1% more than in the same month of 2019 and 65% more than in 2022. It was followed by Barcelona -El Prat, with 3.08 million passengers, still 6% below the pre-pandemic figures.
The records for 2019 were also surpassed by the airport of Gran Canaria (2% more with 1.2 million passengers), Palma de Mallorca (2.3% more) and Alicante (1.3% more). But the large increase in passenger volume in January registered by the Tenerife Sur airport stands out, 7.3% above the data for 2019, that of Málaga-Costa del Sol, 10.5% more, and that of Lanzarote, 10.3% more. The case of the Valencia airport also stands out, which closed the month with almost 587,000 passengers, thus registering the best January in its history, 8% above the data for 2019.
The majority of international passengers arrived in January from the UK, with more than 2 million travelers in this month alone, 117% more than last year. Germany followed, from where 1.3 million passengers landed; then Italy, with 1.1 million people; and France, with 862,000 passengers.
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