More than eighty cruises in Barcelona alone in April, high-speed trains full to overflowing, kilometer-long queues on the AP-7 on key holiday days and airports that had never recorded these numbers of passengers in Spain. Tourism has returned with unprecedented strength in the first year without any restrictions after the pandemic, so it has boosted the country's main economic engine, but it has also exposed environmental and social challenges.
Catalonia, for example, is experiencing a severe drought right at the start of a tourist season that is expected to be a record. At this juncture, the latest activity data breaks all records: the airports of the Aena network accumulate close to 54 million passengers in the first quarter of 2023, 41.6% more than the same period of the year past and 1.6% more than the first three months of 2019.
Between January and March, there were 491,344 aircraft movements (0.1% more than in 2019) and 251,593 tonnes of goods were transported, which is 0.5% more than the same period in 2019. In March 2023, 20,093,589 passengers have been reached, so that the data for the same month in 2019 have been surpassed by 0.6%. This also represents an increase of 28.9% with respect to March 2022.
In March, 180,627 aircraft movements were managed, which means surpassing the data for 2019, by 1.9%, and those for 2022, by 18.2%; and 96,566 tons of merchandise were handled, 2.2% more compared to the same month four years ago and 4.6% more compared to March 2022, Aena reported.
Of the total number of passengers registered in March, 20,000,442 corresponded to commercial passengers. Of all these, 12,855,880 traveled on international flights 1.6% less compared to March 2019 and 30.6% more than in 2022, and with regard to domestic flights 7,144,562, a 4.4 % more than before the pandemic and 25.8% more than last year.
By airports, Barajas registered the highest number of passengers in the third month of the year with 4,821,856, which represents a decrease of 1.7% over March 2019, in addition to an increase of 35.5% compared to March last year.
It is followed by El Prat, with 3,762,656 (-5.2% compared to 2019 and 39.3% compared to 2022); Málaga-Costa del Sol, with 1,475,066 (9% and 25.1%); Palma, with 1,344,375 (3.3% and 22.4%); Gran Canaria, with 1,290,562 (-1% and 22.1%); Tenerife South, with 1,158,755 (4.6% and 16.4%) and Alicante- Elx Miguel Hernández, with 1,045,004 passengers, which means an increase of 4.9% compared to the same month of 2019 and 25.8% more on the total number of passengers in March 2022.
In Catalonia, the recovery of Reus airport stands out, with 11,142 passengers in March. Girona, on the other hand, remains well below the 2019 records.
