Airport passenger numbers inch towards pre-pandemic levels in June but fall short

The number of passengers traveling to and from Catalan airports inched closer to pre-pandemic figures during June, according to figures released on Tuesday by Spain’s airport authority, Aena. 

El Prat airport registered around 4.06 million passengers last month, 20.4% below the figures it had in 2019, the last year before the outbreak of Covid-19. Compared to last year's passenger traffic for June, there was an increase of 195.7%.

Regarding operations in June, Barcelona airport registered 26,648 take-offs and landings, 16.9% less than three years ago and 99.4% more than last year. 

Since January, El Prat has registered 17.7 million passengers. This figure shows a recovery of 71.7% in traffic before the pandemic.

Overall, El Prat Barcelona remains the second busiest airport in Spain by number of passengers and flights, falling behind Madrid Barajas with around 22 million passengers. 

Reus and Girona

Since the beginning of the year, Reus aiport received 338,908 users, a figure 14% below pre-pandemic levels.  

Between January and June, the airport saw 9,525 flights in and out, 13.1% more compared to the first six months of 2019. Just in June alone, Reus airport saw 2,428 flights, 9.1% more than three years ago, and 154,181 passengers.

On the other hand, Girona airport had 190,622 passengers in the month of June, showing a recovery of 70% of pre-pandemic levels. 

Last month, 2,307 landings and take-offs were carried out from the facility in northern Catalonia. 

This figure is almost ten times higher compared to last year's data when some covid measures were still in place. 

Aena's statistics also show that for all of 2022 so far, the airport received more than half a million passengers – 507,003.

A total of 8 million passengers are expected to use Catalonia's airports this summer, twice as many as in 2021 – but still 29% fewer than in 2019 before the pandemic.