Palma airport was one of “the big three” in April

Adding figures together across the country for April, Spanish airports registered handling 13.2 million passengers, 7 percent more than the same month last year. The level of aircraft handling operations rose by 4 percent and freight transport was up 8.4 percent.

The exact passenger total was 13'279'050, of which 5.65 million were travellers within Spain (8.2% more than April 2003), and 7.46 million were making international journeys (5.9% up on April 2003).

Barajas airport in Madrid continued to be the most used airport, clocking up 3.14 million passengers in April (7.2% up on 2003), followed by El Prat airport at Barcelona with 2.04 million (7.9% more than the same month last year).

The third most used airport in April this year was Palma de Mallorca with 1.42 million passengers, although the figure was 1.8 percent down on 2003, following by Málaga with 1.05 million (4.2% more) and South Tenerife (in the Canary Islands) with 793'833 travellers (3.2% less).

To all intents and purposes, the greatest percentage growth in passenger handling shown by individual Spanish airports was at Girona on the Costa Brava, which processed 228'775 clients (237.3% more) and Salamanca, which registered growth of 218.7% against April last year to reach 3'177 passengers.

In terms of aircraft operations, a total of 167'996 across the country were completed successfully, 4 percent more than in April 2003. Of this number, 141'295 were commercial flights (7.4% more), of which 73'775 were national (6.7% more), and 67'520 were international (8.1% more). Regarding the nature of the flight, 116'930 were scheduled, showing a growth of 9.4 percent, while 21'519 were chartered, a fall of 2.5 percent.

Barajas in Madrid was also the airport which came top of the league in Spain for handling the most air traffic, with 32'368 flights (3.6% more); followed by El Prat in Barcelona, with 23'819 operations (4.8% up on April 2003).

Apart from Palma de Mallorca, air traffic handled by Malaga airport grew by 6.5 percent to reach 10'159 operations, whereas those successfully completed on Gran Canaria (in the Canary Islands) fell by 0.1 percent to stand at 8'658.

The greatest growth in operations in percentage terms was registered at León airport, with 414 operations (76.9% more), followed by Girona on the Costa Brava with 2'345 opertaions (67.1% more), and by Santiago, which with 1'819 flights, increased its aircraft handling by 33.7 percent against April in 2003.