Spain passed the 8 million international air passenger mark in October, with the islands up 6% on 2019

The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, emphasised that the October data reflect "an intensification of the recovery, after a few summer months in which the recovery rate has remained at around 87% of the 2019 thresholds. This improvement could be due to an extension of the summer season, which would mean that Spain is making progress with its objective of deseasonalising tourism flows in order to have a more sustainable and higher quality model".

Feeder markets

Up to six of Spain's main feeder markets reported higher figures in October than for the same month in 2019. Denmark, with 166,020 passengers, is 16.5% above the pre-pandemic level; Portugal, with 262,446 passengers, recorded a growth of 4.9%; France, with 677,210 passengers, registered an increase of 4.2%, a percentage similar to that of Ireland, with 215,948 passengers. Switzerland (303,355 passengers) also grew by 2.3% and Italy (687,607) by 1.6%.

In terms of volume, the United Kingdom was the leading feeder for 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 an impact on all the Communities, but especially in the Canary Islands, while German passengers mainly travelled to the Balearic Islands.

Destination Autonomous Communities

The two archipelagos exceeded pre-pandemic records and grew by 6.2% respectively compared to the same month in 2019. The Balearic Islands welcomed 1,384,404 passengers and the Canary Islands, 1,192,202.

In terms of volume, the Community of Madrid hosts the most passengers, 1,721,169, (mainly French) followed by Catalonia, with 1,601,983 passengers, mainly French, Italian and Dutch. Andalusia welcomed 972,244 passengers and the Valencian Community 843,682.

Of the total number of passengers arriving in Spain, six out of ten flew on a low-cost airline, compared to four out of ten who chose a traditional airline. Although international air passengers do not equate to international tourists because they also include residents in Spain returning from an international airport, they do correspond to tourists in the vast majority of cases.

Non official translation