Spain receives 9 million international air passengers in August, 87% of the pre-pandemic level

So far this year, the number of passengers arriving by air has reached 53 million.

The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, has assessed these data as "very positive because they confirm the intense recovery of the tourism sector, which is resisting well the uncertainty generated by the war and inflation. Our forecasts for the autumn are good, although tinged with the prudence that is necessary at such complex times. The Government's priority is to control inflation and energy prices to protect families and businesses, and to this end we have approved an ambitious package of measures such as lowering VAT on electricity from 21% to 5%, which we are going to extend to gas, the 20 cents per litre rebate on fuel and free travel for four months on Renfe commuter and medium-distance trains. Furthermore, and thanks to the Iberian mechanism, Spaniards have saved more than 2.3 billion euros since its implementation", said the Minister for Tourism.

Growth of the main source markets

The month of August saw an increase in passengers departing from all major countries. One out of every four passengers came from the UK and went mainly to the Balearic Islands. A total of 78.6% of UK passengers flew on a low-cost airline. In total, Spanish airports received 2,240,299 passengers from this market. The UK market has achieved a recovery of 84.6% compared to 2019.

A total of 1,338,855 passengers arrived from Germany, and 14.9% of them in the Balearic Islands. In the case of this market, the proportion of passengers choosing traditional airlines over low-cost airlines is almost 50/50 (51.8% on traditional airlines-48.2% on low-cost airlines) The recovery rate for the German market is now at 87% of pre-pandemic arrivals.

For its part, Italy issued 831,581 passengers, who flew mainly to Catalonia. Eight out of ten passengers from Italy travelled on low-cost airlines. The same destinations were the main destination for the 711,189 passengers coming from France.

Main destinations

The Canary Islands was the autonomous community with the highest level of recovery in August, exceeding the data for arrivals in August 2019 by 1.7%, followed by the Balearic Islands, which has recovered 94.4% of pre-pandemic arrivals. In the six communities with the highest number of arrivals (97.1% of the total), the volume of international air passengers reached 87.1% of the 2019 figure. The Balearic Islands was the autonomous community with the most arrivals (2,214,670 passengers), followed by Madrid (1,783,043) and Catalonia (1,775,123).

Non official translation