August was a record month for airline traffic
August was typically hectic once again with millions of tourists descending on our shores for their summer holidays. Roads were clogged, shops were full, airports were packed with passengers and parking became a heated competition. Now the figures are in and yes, it was a record!
The airports within the AENA network handled a massive 25.8 million passengers in August. This was 7.6% more than in the same month in the previous year. The official line is that this was thanks to the “excellent development of the tourism sector in Spain”, but I expect it also had a lot to do with the fact that fewer people chose Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, Cyprus and other once-popular destinations, due to economic or terror related issues.
Of the total passengers 25.7 million were commercial passengers. Of those, 18.9 million were on international flights, up 9.2% over August 2015, making this a historical record for international passengers in one month.
The busiest airport was Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez with almost 5 million passengers passing through. Passenger numbers increased 5.3% over the same month last year, thus continuing the growth trend which began over two years ago.
Barcelona-El Prat was the second busiest with 4.7 million passengers, 6.9% more than last year. Palma de Mallorca also saw an increase with 3.9 million passengers, growth of 5.5%. Malaga-Costa del Sol saw passenger numbers grow by 12.4% to reach 1.9 million in August.
Over the first eight months of the year passenger numbers have reached 155,394,314, a massive 10.9% increase over the same period last year.
Flight Operations
In terms of the number of flights there were 7.6% more than in the previous year with 214,575 flights being handled.
Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport had the busiest ground crew handling 33,202 flights in August, 3.2% more than in the same month in 2015.
Also worthy of mention was Malaga-Costa del Sol, with 14,097 flights, an increase of 10.1%. Flights handled by Alicante-Elche increased 16.1% to 9,697.
Ibiza handled 12,992 flights, 4.1% more than last year, while Barcelona-El Prat handled 30,462 flights, an annual increase of 4.1%.
Cumulatively over the first eight months of the year there have been over 1.3 million flights throughout the AENA network, 7.4% more than last year.
Malaga-Costa del Sol
Malaga airport handled 1,952,510 passengers in August, 12.4% more than last August.
The majority of passengers were on commercial flights (1,944,927). Of those passengers, 1.6 million were on international flights, representing a 13.6% increase. 255,527 passengers were on domestic flights.
Country of Origin
Of the international tourists passing through Malaga, British tourists arrived in the largest numbers. 676,690 people flew from the UK in August, while 155,987 flew from Germany. French travellers accounted for 144,683.
When looking at market growth, travellers from Portugal increased the most with 59.7% more. Travellers from Luxembourg, Denmark and Canada also increased significantly with growth of 55%, 40.4% and 39.5%, respectively.
By city of origin the highest volume of passengers arriving in Malaga were from London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Dublin, Brussels, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Paris and Birmingham.
Malaga Flights
In August there were over 14,000 take-offs and landings at Malaga airport, an increase of 10.1% over August 2015.
The busiest day in terms of passenger numbers was August 6th, the first Saturday of the month, with 69,784 passengers.
In terms of flight numbers, the busiest day was August 20th, when there were 506 flights handled.
