Air Travel Prices Rise 4.8%
June 20th, 2012
Latest data from the National Statistics Institute show that prices for passenger air transport grew by 4.8% in the first quarter of 2012 over the same period of 2011, thus registering a rate three-tenths lower than the previous quarter.
Low-cost airlines virtually maintained their passenger flow, transporting 12.5 million passengers in the first five months of the year, which represented a fall of 0.6% over the same period last year, while the traditional companies transported 9.7 million passengers, 2% less than the previous year, according to data released by the Institute for Tourism Studies on behalf of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.
Thus, the low cost airlines accounted for more than half of the air traffic up until May, with 56.3%, compared to the traditional airlines which handled 43.7% of the travellers.
So far this year, the Spanish airports most used by budget airlines were Barcelona-El Prat, with 2.4 million passengers, representing an increase of 25.3%, Madrid-Barajas, with 1.4 million passengers and a decrease of 4.2%, and Palma de Mallorca, with 1.7 million passengers, a 0.9% increase.
They were followed by Malaga, which experienced a drop of 5.5% to 1.3 million passengers, and Alicante, which received 1.1 million passengers, a decrease of 7.6%. Also registering decreases in the first five months of the year were the airports in Girona-Costa Brava with 405,716 passengers, a drop of 25.7%, Gran Canaria with 667,062 passengers, a fall of 1.5%, and Valencia, with a drop of 6.9% to 412,655 passengers.
El Mundo reported that Ryanair, Easyjet and AirBerlin were once again the companies that carried the largest volume of international passengers to Spain, with 58.9% of the total.
By region, Catalonia tops the list of arrivals on low cost airlines, with 23.2% of the arrivals and 2.4 million passengers, representing an increase of 10.7%. The Canary Islands followed, with 20%, after receiving 2.5 million passengers, a decrease of 1.9%, and then the Balearic Islands which remained the same with 1.9 million passengers.
With regards to the international markets, the UK and Germany lead the arrivals on low cost airlines, with 33.9% and 19.6% of passengers, respectively, representing a decrease of 1.8% for the British market (4.2 million passengers) and a decrease of 3.5% for the German market (2.4 million passengers).
Italy, the third highest source, reduced its arrivals by 4.8% to 1.3 million passengers, equivalent to 10.9% of the total arrivals by low cost airlines. France followed with 6.5% of the total, 813,986 passengers, which represents an increase in passengers of 10.3% more than a year ago.
The Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Andalusia, Valencia and the Canary Islands together received 87.3% of low cost airlines’ international arrivals, but showed declines for Andalusia (-3.1%) and Valencia (-6.3%).
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