Alicante-Elche airport closed the month of May having seen 1.27 million passengers through the terminal, which represents 89.7% of the pre-pandemic levels (2019).
According to data from the airport operator AENA, the infrastructure operated 8,776 flights in that period, a decrease of 7.6% compared to three years ago.
AENA sources explained that its projections for the summer in Alicante are “good”, and that it is expected to maintain the recovery of 90% of passengers for the remainder of the season. They also recalled that 2019 was “a record year”, so the figures for that year (in which the infrastructure closed with more than 15 million passengers) were “exceptional”.
In general, AENA has revised upwards its estimate of passenger traffic for this year, which will range between 75% and 85% of the figures registered in 2019 compared to the initial forecast that pointed to 68%.
For all airports managed by AENA, they collectively closed the month of May with a volume of 22.26 million passengers, 9.6% less than before the pandemic, while the figure accumulated in the first five months stood at 80.62 million, which means that they have already recovered 80.1% of the traffic they had in the same period of 2019.
It has also made clear the “prospective” nature and subject to “risks and uncertainties” of these calculations and despite admitting “the lack of visibility for the last quarter of the year”, the manager explains that its forecasts are based on the seats offered by the airlines.
In total, some 208,745 aircraft were managed in May, which means a recovery of 97.6% compared to 2019, and 83,022 tons of cargo were moved, 3.2% less than then.
Of the total number of travellers registered in May, 22.20 million were commercial passengers, of which 15.08 million travelled on international flights, 12.4% less than in May 2019, and 7.12 million did so on domestic flights, 2.9% less.
The Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport registered the highest number of passengers in the fifth month of the year, with 4.32 million, 17.1% less than in May 2019.
It is followed by the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airports, with 3.81 million, a decrease of 18.4% compared to 2019; Palma de Mallorca, with 3.12 million (-2%); Málaga-Costa del Sol, with 1.85 million (-3.2%), and then Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, with 1.27 million (-9.3%).
