The number of passengers at airports doubles to 3.6 million in September – Economy

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 entry-level passengers, 77.4% of them account for international traffic (78.7% in the same period of the previous year), with their 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.