Country’s airports handled 2.1M passengers in January, below pre-pandemic

  • Lusa
  • 15 March 2022

National airports handled 2.1 million passengers in January, a figure 40% below pre-Covid levels. Still, there is a 177% improvement when compared to 2021.

Domestic airports handled 2.1 million passengers in January, showing an increase of 177.4% compared to the same month in 2021 and accelerating compared to the previous month (168.7%), the national statistics institute, INE, announced on Tuesday.

“In January 2022, national airports handled 2.1 million passengers and 16,800 tonnes of cargo and mail (+177.4% and +39.2%, respectively), showing an acceleration compared to the previous month (+168.7% and +31.7%),” says INE in its rapid statistics of air transport for the first month of the year.

Despite the growth, the numbers remain below the pre-pandemic period. Compared to January 2020, passenger movements fell by 42.6% and cargo and mail movements decreased by 2.8%.

In the first month of the year, France was the main country of origin and destination of flights, registering increases of 129.1% in the number of passengers disembarked and 69.9% in the number of passengers embarked compared to the same month of 2021.

The United Kingdom stood out with the highest growth in the number of embarking and disembarking passengers (576.6% and 485.8%, respectively), ranking third among the main countries of origin and second in the countries of destination.

In terms of aircraft landing at domestic airports, there were 11,900 on commercial flights, representing a year-on-year increase of 106.1% (101.7% in the previous month).

Compared to 2020, there were 21.6% less aircraft landing at domestic airports.