Aena, the world's largest airport operator by passenger numbers, has analyzed the passenger traffic data announced by airlines for this summer season. Recall that Aena operates 45 airports in Spain and another 15 in Europe and America.
In total, carriers have scheduled 215.6 million seats at Aena network airports for the summer season, which is 1.6% more than compared to the same period before the pandemic in 2019. For obvious reasons, this data does not include flights from Russia and Ukraine, which could add about 1% of seats.
The airports that will serve the maximum number of passengers are Madrid-Barajas— more than 42.6 million, representing 95 percent of 2019 and Barcelona-El Prat — more than 36.2 million (90 percent).
Canary Islands air harbors post the largest increase compared to 2019, with airline scheduled seating up 9 percent to 31.5 million The leader here — airport Gran Canaria with 8.5 million with a growth of 3 percent, followed by Tenerife Sur with 7.3 million — 12 percent more and César Manrique-Lanzarote from 5.6 million, up 15 percent from 2019.
It is worth noting the expected increase in airports in the Balearic Islands: Palma de Mallorca with an increase of 11 percent (31.2 million), Ibiza — also by 11 percent (9.3 million) and Menorca — UK — 35 million and minus 3 percent by 2019, Germany — 21.6 million and minus 6 percent and Italy — 13 million and 5 percent growth.
Experts note that the forecasts for the summer season of 2022 are positive, but the degree of uncertainty remains high due to factors such as the development of the pandemic, the situation in Ukraine and rising fuel prices. Airlines can always “correct” schedule of flights in one direction or another.