Passengers through country’s airports by April end approaching 2019 level

The number of passengers handled at national airports grew 500.3% in the first four months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, continuing the trend of approaching pre-pandemic levels, INE released on Wednesday.

“In the first four months of 2022, the number of passengers increased by 500.3% (-19.4% compared to the same period of 2019), continuing the trend of approaching the levels recorded in the pre-pandemic period,” the national statistics institute (INE) advanced in the ‘Rapid Air Transport Statistics’ for April this year.

Until April, Lisbon airport handled 51.8% of total passengers (6.9 million) and recorded a growth of 526.2% compared to the same period in 2021 (-23.0% compared to the same period in 2019).

Considering the three airports with the highest annual passenger traffic, Faro registered the highest increase (+1566.9%).

Between January and April 2022, France remained the main country of origin and destination of flights, with increases of 445.8% in the number of passengers disembarked and 371.8% in the number of passengers embarked, compared to the same period in 2021.

The United Kingdom occupied the second position and Spain the third.

Considering only the month of April 2022, 18,600 aircraft landed at national airports on commercial flights, corresponding to 4.9 million passengers (boardings, landings and direct transits) and 18,300 tons of cargo and mail were handled (+184.6%, +569.2% and +30.9%, respectively, compared to April 2021).

In March 2022, year-on-year variations of +250.2%, +725.1% and +27.0%, in the same order, had been recorded.

Compared with April 2019, there were variations of -5.8% in the number of aircraft landed, -6.5% in passengers handled and +7.1% in cargo and mail movements (-9.8%, -16.1% and +8.7% in the previous month, respectively).

In April 2022, the average daily disembarkation of 83,800 passengers was recorded at national airports (59,400 in the previous month), approaching that observed in April 2019 (89,600).

Considering the passengers disembarked in April, 81.5% corresponded to international traffic (62.3% in the same month of 2021), mostly from the European continent (70.6% of the total).

Regarding embarking passengers, 80.6% corresponded to international traffic (59.8% in April 2021), having airports in the European continent as main destination (70.6% of the total).

Until April, the movement of goods at Lisbon airport represented 73.4% of the total, reaching 52,200 tonnes (+50.6% compared to the same period in 2021), and compared to the first four months of 2019, there was an increase of 10.8%.

In all other airports, cargo and mail movements increased by 6.2% (+10.2% compared to the same period of 2019).