Latest figures show increase in flights and passengers to the Canary Islands

The latest data for flights and passenger figures at Canaries airports in July, shows that airlines are now generally maintaining their schedules with Europe without cancelling or rescheduling flights, and passenger figures increased to 50% occupancy. The new wave of coronavirus and the uncertainty about the restrictions continues to discourage foreign tourists who want to spend their summer holidays at their favourite Canary Island, but thousands are now starting to flock back.

According to a report provided by the Ministry of Tourism, these doubts have somewhat reduced the flights scheduled by the companies, but most of the routes are being fulfilled despite the low occupancy. However, although operating at 50% does not yield much profit for the airlines, it does at least cover losses and allows the fleet to remain operational during the summer.

However, doubts about the rate of recovery of tourism in Europe continue to delay the decision-making of the airlines in the face of the winter season, which is the most important for the Canary Islands and when it is expected that the traditional markets, the British and German, begin to get closer to the numbers of pre-pandemic visitors.

So far, the airports in the Aena network have recovered more than 50% of the traffic registered in 2019, exceeding 15.1 million passengers nationally in July, as a result of the progress of the vaccination campaign in Spain and other issuing countries.

Passenger numbers 2021 v 2020:
According to a statement from Aena, on this occasion, the comparison with 2020 has been suppressed due to the "low representativeness" of the data, due to the effects of home confinement and mobility restrictions last year. Proof of this, it says, is that passenger traffic has grown by 116.6% over last year; the number of flights by 54.7%; and passengers by 42.5%.

Of the total number of travellers registered in Spain in July, more than 15 million, the majority, were commercial passengers, of which almost 6.7 million travelled on domestic flights, 21.7% less than two years ago, and 8.4 million on international flights, 59.6% less.

The airports with the highest number of passengers in July 2021 are:
Madrid: 2.6 million passengers, 57% less than compared to July 2019.
Palma de Mallorca: 2.4 million (42.2% less);
Barcelona: 2.3 million (57.6% less);
Malaga: 1.1 million (48.9% less);
Ibiza: 925,230 (30.6% less);
Alicante: 748,456 (56.5% less);
Gran Canaria: 659,133 (38.3% less);
Valencia: 539,668 (37.2% less).