Spain exceeds 8.1 million international passengers in April, 16.9% more than a year ago

Spain received more than 8.1 million international air passengers in April 2023, 16.9% more than in the same month last year, according to data released today by Turespaña. In the first four months of the year, Spain received a total of 25,262,701 international air passengers, 34.9% more than in the same period of 2022.

Portugal and Italy, the fastest growing countries

The month of April saw an increase in passengers to Spain, departing from all major countries. 57.6% of the total number of passengers came from the EU, an increase of 15.2%, while the flow from the rest of the world, which accounted for the remaining 42.4%, grew by 19.2%.

In terms of countries, and compared to the figures for April for 2022, the markets with the highest growth are Portugal, with 31.9% more, followed by Italy and the US, with 28.8% and 22.9%, respectively.

In terms of volume, the UK was the leading issuer of passengers in April (1,794,841), an increase of 12.1% YoY. The UK accounted for 21.1% of the total share of arrivals. The arrival of British passengers had an impact on all the autonomous communities, but especially the Canary Islands, which was the destination of 25.7% of these passengers. 83.6% of British passengers travelled on a low-cost carrier (LCC), with the UK the leader in arrivals on these airlines, accounting for 29.6% of the total. The total number of travellers from this country so far this year amounts to 5,271,803, 36.3% more than in the first 4 months of 2022.

After the UK, Germany is still the second country of origin of international passengers. Passenger arrivals from Germany (14.5% of the total) increased by 4.8% in April, especially benefiting the Balearic Islands (37.3% of passengers). Slightly less than half of German passengers (44.9% of the total) travelled on traditional airlines, with Germany the leading market in terms of arrivals on these airlines (17.2% of the total).

9.4% of the passenger flow received in April came from Italy, with a growth of 28.8% YoY, which particularly benefited Catalonia (30.3% of these passengers) and Madrid (25.9%). Italy is the third largest issuing country, with a predominance of LCC passengers (83.3% of the total) over those travelling on traditional airlines.

France accounted for 8.6% of the total number of passengers in April, showing a growth of 16.8%, which mainly favoured Madrid and Catalonia. In the case of international passengers from the Netherlands, there was an increase of 5.2% in April, with the main destinations being Valencia, Catalonia and Andalusia.

Catalonia, the fastest growing

Madrid was the community with the highest number of arrivals in April (22.3% of the total), followed by Catalonia (20.1%) and the Balearic Islands (15.7%). Among the top six, Catalonia recorded the highest YoY growth (21.9%), followed by Valencia (21.4%) and Madrid (20.4%). Overall growth in the six communities with the highest number of arrivals (the six together account for 96% of the total) was 16.5%.

In terms of airports, Ibiza airport experienced the highest YoY growth (27% compared to April 2022), followed by Valencia (24.6%) and Barcelona (with a growth of 23.2% YoY). In terms of total volume, Barajas accounted for 1,811,380 international passengers in April, compared to 1,549,890 for Barcelona airport; in third place was Palma de Mallorca airport, with 1,034,958 international passengers in April.

Of the total number of passengers arriving in Spain by air in April, 62.3% of them chose LCC to travel with, an increase of 16.9%, while the figure for those travelling on traditional airlines, the remaining 37.7%, increased by 13.5%.

Note: Although international air passengers are not all international tourists because they also include residents in Spain returning from an international airport, they are tourists in the vast majority of cases.

Non official translation