Air travel

"Recovery" in number of flights, but still down 60%

Air-traffic controller in Barcelona. | Rafael Garcia Sánchez

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterMadrid12/08/2020 13:52

Enaire, the state air navigation company, reports handling 81,339 flights in July. These were 63.1% lower than July last year. However, by comparison with the previous months, the fall was not as heavy. In April there was a 94.7% drop; in May a 93.8% decrease; and in June 89.7%. Enaire is therefore pointing to some recovery in July, albeit that the number of flights was way down on what it should have been.

The actual numbers of flights were 9,627 (April), 11,992 (May) and 21,142 (June); the state of alarm was of course lifted on June 21. In March, there was 40.7% decrease (92,895 flights in all); the state of alarm applied from March 14.

In July, there were 23,535 national flights (43% lower than last year) and 44,316 international flights (down 66.8%). The remaining flights were those which used Spanish air space without taking off or landing - 13,488 (down 70.7%). The drop in the number of flights in July was comparable with the rest of Europe; the average decrease was 60.7%.

For the Palma control centre there was a 54.3% decrease to 21,370 flights. At the Canaries control centre the fall was 53.8% but with fewer flights (13,842). The Barcelona control centre dealt with the most flights (40,522), a fall of 63.3%.

Between January and July, Enaire handled 496,956 flights. These were 59.9% fewer than for the same period of 2019.