Overall recovery reaches 95% of the 2019 figures
Reyes Maroto: “The data reflect a great increase in the recovery of air traffic”
Spain received nearly eight million international air passengers (7,941,572) in October, bringing the recovery percentage to 95% compared to the same month in 2019, according to data released today by Turespaña. The two archipelagos, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands have received 6.2% more passengers than in 2019.
The Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, stressed that the October data reflects “an intensification of the recovery, after a few summer months in which the recovery percentage has remained around 87% of the thresholds of 2019. This improvement could be due to an extension of the summer season, which would mean that we are advancing in the objective of seasonally adjusting tourist flows to have a more sustainable and higher quality model”.
Source markets
Up to six main source markets for Spain present higher figures in October than in the same month of 2019. Denmark, with 166,020 travelers, is 16.5% above the pre-pandemic; Portugal, with 262,446, registers a growth of 4.9%; France, with 677,210 passengers, presented an increase of 4.2%, a percentage similar to that of Ireland, with 215,948 passengers. Also, Switzerland (303,355 passengers) grew by 2.3% and Italy (687,607) by 1.6%. In volume, the United Kingdom was the first issuer of passengers (1,824,971), representing 23% of the total share, followed by Germany with 1,212,787 (15% of the share). The arrival of British passengers has had repercussions in all the Communities, but especially in the Canary Islands, while the Germans have gone mainly to the Balearic Islands.
Regions of destination
The two archipelagos exceed pre-pandemic records and grow by 6.2% respectively compared to the same month in 2019. Illes Balears receives 1,384,404 passengers and the Canary Islands, 1,192,202. In volume, the Community of Madrid is the one that receives the most passengers, 1,721,169, (mainly French) followed by Catalonia, with 1,601,983 travelers, mainly French, Italian, and Dutch. 972,244 travelers arrived in Andalusia and 843,682 in the Valencian Community.
Of the total number of passengers arriving in Spain, six out of ten flew with a low-cost airline, compared to four out of ten who opted for a traditional company. Although international air passengers are not equivalent to international tourists because they also include residents of Spain who return from an international airport, the vast majority do correspond to tourists.