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ARCHIVED - Andalucía airport traffic down by 89 per cent from pre-pandemic April levels
Passenger numbers still decimated at Málaga and other Andalucía destinations
The almost total cancellation of international travel in Europe during the winter continued to have a devastating effect on the airports of Andalucía Alicante-Elche airport in April, when the data published by Aena relating to passenger numbers illustrated both the effect of the Covid pandemic and the way in which statistics can occasionally throw up misleading results!
For example, the number of people passing through the terminal building at Málaga-Costa del Soal during the month was an incredible 3,890 per cent higher than in April 2020, a year-on-year increase which in normal circumstances would be viewed as a triumph. But the reality, of course, is that April 2020 was the first month in which air travel – and indeed all travel - was practically non-existent due to the pandemic, and that the increase from 5,254 passengers to 209,564 is actually a relatively insignificant one!
Far more revealing is the comparison with April 2019, when those arriving and leaving the airport numbered 1.83 million: in other words, the figures are down by a devastating 88.5 per cent.
Similar pictures are painted by the data for other airports in the region: Just 79,000 passengers at Sevilla during April, as opposed to 683,000 two years ago, only minimal activity at Granada-Jaén (16,029 passengers), Almería (9,924) and Jerez de la Frontera (8,752), and nothing to speak of at Córdoba (116).
With no international airlines resuming normal service as yet it seems unlikely that the airports will become the hives of activity they were prior to the pandemic at least until the summer, and even then flights and passenger numbers will still be subject to restrictions if the need arises, and there is still some uncertainty over exactly how the “health passports” will work.
In addition, if airlines adopt limited flight schedules there must be doubts over whether they will include smaller airports such as those of Granada, Jaén, Córdoba and Jerez among their services: international tourism may re-commence this summer, but it is possible that the less important airports of Andalucía will not yet reap the benefits.