“In 2022 as a whole (preliminary data), 217,600 aircraft on commercial flights landed at national airports (+61.7% compared to 2021) and 56.8 million passengers were handled (+121.7%). The movement of cargo and mail increased by 16.9%, reaching 222,900 tons”, indicated the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Even so, compared to 2019, before the covid-19 pandemic, the number of aircraft and passengers handled decreased by 4.5% and 5.6%, respectively.

Only the movement of cargo and mail increased by 5.8%, compared to 2019.

In 2022, the United Kingdom was the main country of origin and destination for flights, after having ranked second in 2021 and 2020, registering growth of 213.5% in the number of disembarked passengers and 218.7% in the number of passengers shipped.

France, Spain, Germany, and Italy followed, which occupied the fifth position among the main countries of origin and destination, which in 2021 and 2020 had been occupied by Switzerland.

In an analysis of the last month of last year, national airports handled 4.1 million passengers and 18,300 tonnes of cargo and mail, corresponding to year-on-year changes of +53.0% and -7.4%, respectively.

In that month, passenger traffic remained above the level of 2019, having grown by 4%, after growth of 3% in November and 4% in October.

The movement of cargo and mail decreased by 6.4%, accentuating the declines of 1.5% in November and 3.4% in October.

In December, there was an average daily disembarkation of 69,400 passengers at national airports, which compares with 65,600 in the previous month, exceeding by 4.9% the value observed in December 2019.