Airports in Portugal have received the highest number of passengers in July, a total of seven million tourists, scoring a 12.5 per cent increase from the previous year.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), around 117,000 passengers arrived during July, up from 104,300 passengers recorded at the same time last year.
Since the beginning of 2023, there have been historic highs in monthly passenger numbers at national airports,
The number of passengers has also increased compared to 2019 levels when no COVID-19 restrictions were imposed, showing a surge of 11.1 per cent in arrivals.
Furthermore, the Quick Air Transport statistics reveal that in July, seven million passengers and tons of cargo and mail moved through national airports, showing an increase of 12.5 per cent in passengers and a 5.7 per cent drop in cargo and mail transports. Compared to July 2019, there were increases of 10.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent, in the same order.
As per the first half of the year, between January and July, the number of passengers increased by 25.2 per cent compared to last year. On the other hand, the movement of cargo witnessed a decrease of 1.3 per cent. Once again, comparing 2022 levels to 2019, there were increases of 11.8 and 8.2 per cent in cargo moved, respectively.
In the seventh month of the year, around 81 per cent of passengers that arrived in Portugal corresponded to international traffic, for a total of three million passengers and 69 per cent of them came from the European continent – 13 per cent more than in July 2022.
Americans were the second-largest nationality to visit Portugal in July, representing 8.6 per cent of all arrivals – some 9.1 per cent more than in 2022. Airports on the American continent were the second leading destination for passengers, accounting for 9.8 per cent of the total and experiencing a surge of 13.6 per cent.
Most arrivals came to Porto airport, which received 22.4 per cent of total passengers – 25.7 per cent more than in the previous year, while Faro Airport experienced a 19.2 per cent increase in arrivals.
As per the volume of passengers that boarded international flights between January and July, the majority of those came from the United Kingdom, followed by those from France and Spain.
