Airport passengers surpasses 2019 for the second month

Portugal’s airports in November handled 4.1 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 31.3%, for the second consecutive month exceeding the level of the equivalent month in 2019, before the pandemic, according to a release sent out on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

According to the flash statistics for air transport, “in November 2022, national airports moved 4.1 million passengers and 19,300 tons of cargo and mail, corresponding to year-on-year changes of +31.3% and +0.2%, respectively.”

November was the second consecutive month in which passenger numbers surpassed the level of 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, with growth of 3.0%, after the 4.0% year-on-year rise recorded in October.

November saw, on average, the daily disembarkation of 65,600 passengers at domestic airports, down from 90,700 in October but up from 64,200 in November 2019.

Of the passengers who disembarked last November, 80.3% were flying to or from international destinations (compared with 79.9% in the same month of 2021), mostly from mainland Europe (66.6% of the total), while among those embarking, 81.8% corresponded to international traffic (81.5% in November 2021), with airports in mainland Europe the main destination (68.8% of the total).

In the first 11 months of last year as a whole, the number of passengers handled was up 129.8% on the same period of 2021, but was still 6.2% below that recorded in the same period of 2019.

The UK was the main country of origin and destination of flights in the period, with the number of passengers landing up 228.8% on the year and the number of passengers embarking up 228.1% growth.