ARCHIVED - Airport traffic failing to take off in Murcia and Alicante this summer

Nationally the situation has improved during August but is still trailing behind year to date

The travel sector has been amongst the worst-hit business activities to be affected by the Covid pandemic, after worldwide travel ground to a complete halt during the peak winter months of lockdowns and movement restrictions.

Although travellers have once again been on the move this summer, the combination of restrictions still being imposed by some countries, together with the added cost of providing PCR test results, has deterred many from holidaying this summer, as can clearly be seen in the air traffic statistics published by Aena, which manages most of the airports in Spain.

During August the Aena network handled 18,011,330 passengers through their Spanish network, more than doubling the numbers posted for August last year and reporting an impressive 101.2% growth on August 2020.

However, in August 2019 before the pandemic struck the same network handled 29,481,222 passengers in just this one month of the year, so although the figures this August are a marked improvement on last summer, they still highlight the extent to which the industry has been castigated by the pandemic.

By August 2019 the Aena network in Spain had handled 186 million passengers, but this year the figure is just 60 million, 67.8% lower than the first eight months of 2021.

So it’s hardly surprising that the two airports used most frequently by travellers to the Murcia region and Alicante province should also have noted a downturn in their passenger figures.

Corvera airport Murcia

During August Corvera airport in the Murcia region handled 66,369 passengers (-53%), but this is a far cry from the 144,399 who used the airport in August of 2019. The total traffic year to date is still 82.6% down on 2019 levels, with only 135,202 passengers having been processed in the first eight months of the year, compared to the 774,152 passengers who used the airport during the same period in 2019 (plus 21,000 whom used San Javier before it closed down in January 2019).

Corvera is undoubtedly losing UK traffic to Alicante airport this year, as airlines opt to fly into Alicante only rather than into Corvera as well as Alicante.

Alicante-Elche airport: Alicante province

Alicante has also seen its traffic reduced this year, although to a lesser degree than Murcia and during August processed 938,204 passengers, as opposed to 1,692,011 in August of 2019. This is, however, a 95.1% improvement on its performance during August 2020.

Year-to-date, the passenger total is 2,597,646, which is a 74.7% drop on the 2019 figure of 10,259,754, so although traffic has improved considerably throughout the summer months, there is still a lot of lost ground to make up.

For those wanting to visit Spain from the UK, the current regulations linked to the need to continue providing negative PCR tests is a major deterrent from travelling at the moment, and although the UK is considering scrapping the existing traffic light system, the current level of new infections in the UK, averaging more than 30,000 a day, is starting to raise concerns that a further wave of new cases may lie ahead in the coming weeks of winter, once again pressuring NHS resources. Despite fears, lowcost airline WizzAir is planning to offer winter flights between Spain and Doncaster Sheffield airport from November 1.

This of course, may once again result in restrictions limiting travel from the UK and preventing the Spanish tourism sector from achieving a clean Covid recovery take-off.

Image: Aena