Lisbon, Sept. 12, 2024 (Lusa) - The number of passengers travelling through Portugal's airports rose by 2.6% year-on-year in July, to 7.2 million, and has risen by 4.7% since January, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Thursday.
According to INE's "Rapid statistics on air transport", in July 2024 around 25,000 aircraft landed at national airports on commercial flights, corresponding to 7.2 million passengers (embarkations, disembarkations and direct transits), which corresponds to increases of 0.6% and 2.6%, respectively, compared to the same month in 2023.
During the first seven months of 2024, INE reports "all-time highs in monthly passenger numbers at national airports", and in July there were around 120,000 passengers disembarking on average each day, 2.3% more than in the same month last year (117,200).
In the year to July, the number of passengers handled rose by 4.7% and cargo and mail movements grew by 14.0%.
In the first seven months of the year, Lisbon airport handled 50% of all passengers, which corresponds to 20.0 million and an increase of 4.7% compared to the same period in 2023.
Porto airport accounted for 22.6% of all passengers handled (9.1 million; +5.6%), while Faro airport saw a 2.3% increase in passenger movements, totalling 5.5 million.
Up to July, the United Kingdom was the main country of origin and destination for flights, with growth in the number of passengers disembarked (+1.9%) and embarked (+2.2%) compared to the same period in 2023.
In the opposite direction, France recorded decreases of 2.4% in both the number of passengers disembarked and embarked and was in second place, followed by Spain, Germany and Italy.
Considering the month of July alone, 82% of passengers disembarking at national airports corresponded to international traffic, reaching 3.0 million passengers (+2.6%), mostly from the European continent (68.6% of the total), corresponding to an increase of 1.6% compared to July 2023.
The American continent was the second main origin, accounting for 9.0% of total disembarked passengers (+7.3 %).
Of the passengers embarking, 80.8% corresponded to international traffic, totalling 2.8 million (+3.5%), with 65.5% of the total going to airports on the European continent, an increase of 2.1% compared to July 2023.
Airports on the American continent were the second main destination for boarding passengers (10.4% of the total; +10.1%).
Looking at the month of July alone, INE reports that 22,100 tonnes of cargo and mail were handled, an increase of 18.5% on the same period in 2023.
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