Date Published: 12/08/2020
ARCHIVED - Spanish air traffic recovers slightly but still loses 76 percent of passengers during July
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The hotel sector is also reporting a significant fall in bookings
Two sets of data clearly illustrate the difficulties being experienced by the travel sector in Spain and the undoubted difficulties lying ahead as increasing numbers of countries impose restrictrictions on international travel:
Aena; Airport stats for July.
During July airports within the Aena network (virtually every airport in Spain) lost 76.2% of their normal July international traffic, processing only 6,987,828 passengers. Most airports lost 70.80% of their passenger traffic, a few examples being Madrid Barajas (-83.3%), Barcelona El Prat (-83.7%) and Alicante Elche (-75.4%).
The Canary and Balearic islands processed the highest number of passengers, Palma de Mallorca handling the highest number of passengers in Spain during July. However, even the 1,102,854 passengers processed by the airport was 73.8% less than normal.
Internal flights down 91% in June
A second set of stats produced by the INE National Statistics Unit relate to the number of internal transport movements within Spain during JUNE. Logically these will be lower as they relate to June, and inter-regional travel was only permitted to re-open from 21st June.
The number of travellers who chose to travel by plane within the country plunged by 91% in June compared to the same month the previous.
In total, 359,000 travellers used air transport for their trips in June, compared to 80,000 registered in May. 455,000 users chose long distance trains for their journeys, 85.4% less than in June 2019.
There is no doubting the difficulties being faced by airlines at the moment as the Covid pandemic continues to cause chaos for travellers worldwide.
Air travel is one of the sectors experiencing the greatest problems, with airlines facing loss of customer confidence and a dramatic decline in demand for flights as countries impose restrictions on travellers either entering their own borders or on their own nationals travelling abroad.
The latest list of countries from within the Schengen zone imposing restrictions on travel to and from Spain makes sobering reading, the UK one of many countries advising against travel to Spain due to the growing level of Covid cases within the country.
On a daily basis there are more than 2,000 new cases of Covid in Spain (see figures for
Tuesday; 3,632 new cases or for the weekend, during which there were
more than 8,600 new cases) and although significant efforts are being made to lockdown detected cases and limit the spread of the virus there is no hiding from the FACT that the significant number of new cases and number of outbreaks right across the country is justifiable grounds for concern (and is NOT scaremongering as is the accusation most commonly levelled against the media on expat social media pages).
The decision of the British Government to impose a 14 day quarantine on travellers between Spain and the UK is hitting the Murcia region hard, as 50% of tourists to this region come from the UK, and the results of that decision are now clearly visible on flights from the UK, many of which are carrying less than 50% of their normal passenger levels, making it very easy for passengers to travel safely with social distancing on flights and in airports very easy to observe as the image clearly shows.
The only upside of this is that readers report feeling very safe when they do travel!
Many passengers have chosen not to fly due to the difficulties of complying with a 14 day quarantine upon their return to the UK and those who want to visit families in the UK are also faced with the prospect of having to spend their 14 day family visit in a quarantine as well, the result being a significant number of cancellations.
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