Airport passenger numbers still breaking records, up 15% YoY in May
Of all passengers who disembarked at Portugal's airports in May, 82.3% corresponded to international traffic, at 2.6 million passengers, mostly from Europe.
Portugal’s airports handled 6.2 million passengers in May, a year-on-year increase of 15.2% and 10.7% above May 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Thursday.
“Since the beginning of 2023, there have been historical highs in the monthly values of passengers at national airports,” notes INE in its Rapid Air Transport Statistics release for May.
In the month under review, an average of around 100,000 passengers disembarked each day at the country’s airports – a figure 15.0% higher than that recorded in May 2022 (87,100) and 10.6% above that recorded in May 2019 (90,600).
According to INE, of all passengers who disembarked at Portugal’s airports in May, 82.3% corresponded to international traffic, at 2.6 million passengers, mostly from Europe (70.1% of the total). The total marked an increase of 14.0% from May 2022.
The Americas were the second main origin, accounting for 8.6% of total passengers disembarking.
As for passengers embarking in Portugal, 81.9% corresponded to international traffic, at 2.5 million, with the main destination being airports in Europe (71.2% of the total), marking growth of 14.3% compared to May 2022.
Airports in the Americas were the second main destination of passengers embarking (7.6% of the total).
From January to May, the cumulative number of passengers handled at Portugal’s airports was up 33.6% on the same period in 2022 and by 13.0% compared to the first five months of 2019.
Lisbon airport handled 51.8% of total passengers, at 12.9 million, up 36.9% on the same period of 2022 and 10.1% on the same period of 2019.
Porto airport accounted for 22.7% of all passengers handled, up 32.0% on the year and 14.5% on the same period of 2019, while Faro airport saw growth of 24.0% from a year earlier, and 6.2% on the same period of 2019.
Considering the volume of passengers disembarking from and embarking on international flights from January to May 2023, the UK overtook France to emerge as the main country of origin, with growth of 28.2% compared to the same period of 2022.
France, in second place, still registered an increase of 24.9%; it remained the main country of destination for passengers, followed by the UK.
Spain was in third position both in terms of the origin and destination of passengers.
Regarding the movement of cargo and mail, in May this fell 3.0% year on year to 19,100 tonnes, but was up 5.1% on May 2019.
In the first five months of the year, taken as a whole it registered a decrease of 0.6% but, compared to the same period of 2019, was up 9.5%.
