Spanish airport figures

The latest figures for Spain’s biggest airport, Madrid Barajas, shows that in May passenger numbers actually fell compared to airports in Barcelona and South Tenerife whose passenger numbers grew with 22% more passengers than a year ago.

Madrid-Barajas was the only airport out of the ten biggest airports in Spain which saw a fall in the number of passengers (-1.7%) and the number of flights (-0.4%) compared to the same period last year. Overall passenger numbers for the ten biggest airports grew by 6.4% to 17.883.637 passengers in May.

The company which compiles passenger figures says that the drop in passenger numbers this year for Madrid Barajas is partly down to the fact that last May Madrid hosted a number of important sporting events which helped to boost figures and also benefited from the fact that it was not forced to close due to the volcanic ash crisis this time last year.

This year the figures for Madrid Barajas have also been affected by the growth of Ryanair in Barcelona’s main airport where it is the third biggest airline (it is the second biggest in Madrid) and the fall in domestic traffic in Barajas.