Barcelona El Prat Airport overtook Madrid Barajas once again in August

Barcelona (ACN).- For the second consecutive year, Catalonia's main airport hosted more passengers than its Madrid competitor during the month of August, becoming the busiest airfield in Spain. 4.24 million people travelled through Barcelona El Prat last August, representing an 8.6% increase on the figure from the previous year, according to statistics released last weekend by the Spanish Airport Authority (AENA). Meanwhile, 3.99 million travellers passed through the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (a +5% growth). In the last few years, the Catalan airport has consistently been gaining passengers, particularly attracted by Barcelona's tourist and business activities as well as by the increase of inter-continental flights. Meanwhile, Madrid airport has been losing passengers since the start of the economic crisis, as it was benefiting from centralising Spanish long-distance flights. However, in the last few months, Madrid has started to gain passengers again, although at a slower pace than Barcelona. The first time the Barcelonan airport overtook Madrid's was in August 2013, when 3.9 million people chose the Catalan airport (+0.8% on 2012 figures), as opposed to the 3.8 million individuals who decided to go through Madrid's (-11.7% on 2012 figures).

Madrid continue to lead in annual terms

Despite the fact that Barcelona El Prat overtook Madrid Barajas in August, looking at the number accumulated throughout the year, the Spanish capital continues to lead the ranking with 27.5 million passengers travelling through its venues in the first 8 months of the year. In the same period, 25.5 million individuals flew through Barcelona El Prat. Despite still being 2 million people behind Madrid, Barcelona's accumulated figure is particularly high, representing a 6.8% growth on 2013 figures.

Passengers from domestic flights within Spain passing through Barcelona El Prat increased by 2.7% in August, which represents a return to positive figures in this passenger category after years of drops due to the contraction of the internal demand due to Spain's economic crisis.

EU flights grew by 12.7% in August in Barcelona

Flights within the European Union which take off and land in El Prat are the main drive behind Barcelona's passenger growth. The number of people using these flights from the Catalan capital last August increased by 12.7% compared to figures from August 2013.

The number of passengers travelling in flights from outside the EU grew by 5.6%. The most spectacular increase has been the 45% growth in the number of people travelling to or from Asia, mostly thanks to the start of the direct connection between Beijing and Barcelona. The African market increased by 24.5% and the North-American business grew by 16.9%.

In August, 28,964 flights took off and landed at Barcelona El Prat, a 5.4% increase on figures from the previous year.