Air Travel in Spain up 14%

Air Travel in Spain up 14%

Spain set for another bumper year for air travel

Easter came around a little earlier than usual this year which led tourism experts to believe travel spending could be down. People enjoy a sunny Easter more than a cold and miserable one. A miserable one is far more likely in March than April.

This year Easter happened during the last weekend of March. This actually caused a rise in tourism as Spaniards fled south for some sunshine. Spanish airports were kept super busy with all this extra traffic.

Fuel prices are also at a near-decade low so air fare prices aren’t getting much higher. As a result this early Easter brought in 14% more travellers to Spanish airports over March in last year.

The Spanish aviation industry released information showing that 16.47 million people found their way through the airports last month. Each and every one of Spain’s 18 busiest airports saw more people than last year.

This data might not be good for environmentalists but almost everyone else will enjoy the sign that the economy is recovering. The highest increase was seen at Palma de Majorca where 26.1% more passengers arrived in March 2016 over March 2015.

Other increases were seen in Alicante (25.1% increase) and the Malaga Airport in the Costa del Sol that saw a 21.8% increase.

When you extrapolate out for the entire first quarter of 2016 then Spanish airports saw 42.74 million passengers during the first three months of 2016. This was a total increase of 14.4% over the first quarter of last year. The traffic in Malaga airport was up 18.2%. If this trend is to continue then it looks like Costa del Sol could have a fantastic year.