The Canary and Balearic Islands lead the recovery, boosted by the return of British tourists
Spain received more than 8.2 million passengers from international airports in June, which represents 85.5% of those who arrived in the same month of 2019 and 3.5 times more than those who arrived in June last year, according to data published on Monday (July 18) by Turespaña from Aena records.
“The Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands are clearly leading the recovery of international travellers, undoubtedly favoured by the return this 2022 of the British tourist, who already represents one in four passengers. Our islands are thus approaching the pre-pandemic figures at the start of the high season for which we have really encouraging prospects, even in the current context of rising prices,” said the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto.
Although international air passengers are not equivalent to international tourists because they also include residents of Spain returning from an international airport, the vast majority are tourists. Of the total number of passengers, 59.7% travelled on a low-cost company, and 40.3% on a traditional airline.
The United Kingdom leads the arrivals in ‘low cost’, The arrival of the British had repercussions on all the Autonomous Communities, but especially on the Balearic Islands. The majority of travellers from the United Kingdom (78%) flew with a low-cost airline. In total, Spanish airports received 2,079,084 passengers from this country, which represents a degree of recovery in this market of 83.6% compared to 2019.
Germany was the second issuing country, with 1,322,410 passengers, who went mainly to the Balearic Islands. In this case, the proportion of passengers who choose traditional companies over ‘low cost’ is distributed practically to 50%. (51.1% in traditional companies compared to 48.9% in low cost). The degree of recovery of this market, compared to 2019, is 87.2%.
In the third position, Italy emitted 716,042 passengers, who flew mainly to Catalonia and Madrid. Eight out of ten passengers from Italy travelled on low-cost airlines. The 647,834 passengers from France also went to Catalonia and Madrid. Italy presents a level of recovery with respect to 2019 of 90.6% and France of 95.2%.
However, the countries that show a greater degree of recovery in June are Portugal (99%), the Netherlands (97%) and Denmark (96.6%).