Airport passenger numbers almost back to pre-pandemic levels
In the first three months of the year, France remained the main country of origin and destination of flights, with a growth of 408.0% in the number of passengers disembarked.
The number of passengers handled at Portuguese airports grew 465.7%, in the first quarter, compared to the same period of 2021, continuing the trend of approaching pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Statistics Portugal (INE), released on Monday.
“In the first quarter of 2022, the number of passengers increased 465.7% (-11.9% compared to the same period of 2020), continuing the trend of approaching the levels recorded in the pre-pandemic period,” noted the INE, which released the rapid statistics of air transport for March this year.
March saw the average daily disembarkation of 59,400 passengers at Portuguese airports as a whole, up from 47,800 recorded in the previous month and eight times the figure recorded in the same month of 2021 (7,200), approaching that observed in March 2019 (69,500).
In the first three months of the year, France remained the main country of origin and destination of flights, with a growth of 408.0% in the number of passengers disembarked and 307.6% in the number of passengers embarked, compared to the same period in 2021.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, which was not among the top five countries in the same period of 2021, occupied the second position in the first quarter of this year, while Spain took third place.
14,800 aircraft landed at national airports on commercial flights in March, corresponding to 3.6 million passengers (boardings, landings and direct transits), and 18,800 tonnes of cargo and mail were handled (+250.2%, +725.2% and +27.0%, respectively, compared to March 2021).
However, the number of passengers, cargo, and mail showed a deceleration in March compared to the previous month (+877.9% and +48.1%).
Compared with March 2019 (the same month of the previous year in the pre-pandemic period), there was a 9.8% decrease in the number of aircraft landed, 16.1% in passengers handled and an 8.7% increase in cargo and mail movements.
