Spain’s Airlines Reached 98% Of Pre-Pandemic Levels In January
Spain News
Published: 20 February 2023 18:19 CET
Spain’s Ministry of Tourism has announced that airlines in Spain recovered 98 percent of Pre-Pandemic levels, with 5.2 million passengers landing at Spanish airports in January 2023.
Data released by Turespana, the agency for tourism in Spain, shows that of those 5.2 million passengers, 55.8 percent of arrivals flew in using low-cost airlines such as EasyJet, Ryanair and Vueling.
The remaining 44.2 percent travelled using traditional, full-service airlines.
Data also shows that when it comes to tourists and which country they travelled from, 18.2 percent came from the United Kingdom, 11.8 percent arrived from Germany and 10.2 percent from Italy.
In addition to British, German and Italian visitors, French and Dutch travellers were also high up in the rankings for visitors to Spain in January. They represented 8.1 and 4.9 percent of all arrivals, respectively.
Without a doubt, tourism in Spain is huge, not only for the country’s economy but also for the survival of airlines. Seeing tourism and aviation return to pre-pandemic levels is a positive sign for things to come.
Arrivals from all countries increased this year but the ones that stand out the most are those from Portugal, as visitor numbers from this neighbouring country grew by 142.8 percent compared to 2022. Following Portugal is the United Kingdom with the number of visitors standing at 124.5 percent and from Italy 111.6 percent.
British and German travellers favoured the Canary Islands, consisting of Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria with figures showing that 43 and 40.5 percent of their flights landed there, respectively.
Passengers from Italy mainly flew to Madrid (33.4 percent) and Catalonia (30.5 per cent), similar to those flying from France, with 35.2 and 25.9 percent of them visiting these two destinations, respectively.
The number of arrivals to destinations like Madrid, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, rose by 76.5 percent. A representation of 97.4 percent of all arrivals.
Approximately 30 percent of the total visitors reached Madrid, followed by the Canary Islands with 23.3 percent and Catalonia with 20.8 percent.
The city of Madrid also received the highest growth in arrivals on traditional airlines, 56 percent, while Catalonia registered the largest increase compared to the same time in 2022, with 58 percent.
In regards to low-cost airlines, Catalonia represented the community with the highest share of arrivals with figures standing at 26.3 percent. It also had the highest growth compared to 2022, as arrivals rose by 113.4 percent.
Addressing these figures, Reyes Maroto, the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism said “From the Government, we are deploying a very ambitious tourism policy to modernise our tourism model that is already having its results in terms of quality, sustainability and digitization of destinations and companies in the sector, which will help maintain our international leadership.”
Overall these figures forecast a bright and sunny Summer season in Europe.
Sources
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/spains-airlines-recovered-98-of-pre-pandemic-levels-in-january/
https://simpleflying.com/spanish-airlines-near-100-pre-covid-passengers/
