Portuguese airports recorded a movement of 3.6 million passengers in September, an increase of 95.8% over the same month last year, the National Statistics Institute revealed on Friday.
As for the movement of goods and mail, it totaled 16.8 thousand tons in September, an increase of 35% year-on-year.
However, passenger traffic decreased by 39.3%, and freight and mail traffic decreased by 5.2% in September of this year, when compared to the same month in 2019, according to the National Institute of Statistics.
The first nine months of this year witnessed a 3.6% increase in passenger traffic at national airports compared to the same period in the previous year, compared to a decrease of 67.3% in the same period in 2020, and an increase of 6.9% in the same period in 2019.
The National Institute of Statistics also notes that compared to the same period in 2019, the decrease was 66.1%.
Until September, France was the main country of origin and destination for flights, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany with a large, albeit smaller, number of passengers.
Regarding passengers disembarking at national airports in September, the National Institute of Statistics reveals that 76.9% correspond to international traffic (76.0% in the same period of the previous year), and that the majority are coming from airports on the European continent (67.6%).
As for outbound passengers, 77.4% correspond to international traffic (78.7% in the same period the previous year), with the main destination airports located on the European continent (70%).
In September, 15.8 thousand aircraft, in turn, landed at national airports on commercial flights, carrying 3.6 million passengers (boarding, disembarking and direct transit), with a circulation of 16.8 thousand tons of cargo and mail, which corresponds to an annual increase of 46.4%, 95.8% and 35 % in the same order.
Compared to September 2019, there was a 27.0% decrease in the number of aircraft landed, a 39.3% decrease in the number of passengers handled, and a 5.2% decrease in freight and mail traffic (-25.0%, -39.9% and -5.2% in August 2021. Compared to the same month in 2019, respectively).
In the first nine months of this year, Lisbon Airport handled 44.9% of the total passengers (7.1 million), which represents an annual decrease of 8.8%.
In the opposite direction, Faro Airport recorded a 14.5% increase in passenger traffic (2.1 million) through September, although the figure is still far from the figure observed in the same period in 2019 (7.4 million passengers and a decrease of 71.8%), points outside INE.
