A report by the European International Airports Council shows that Madrid-Barajas suffered the biggest fall in passenger numbers among airports of a comparable size (over 25 million visits a year) during August, a drop of 11.7% compared with the same month last year.
Barajas has accumulated a decline in passenger numbers of 20.4% over the past two years and has now fallen to ninth place in the rankings of European airports on the basis of traffic. Barcelona-El Prat replaced Madrid as Spain’s busiest airport in August after increasing its passenger numbers by 7.8% over the past 24 months.
According to figures from the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, the number of overseas visitors to Madrid fell 22.2% in August compared to the same month last year. Numbers are also down 7.7% in the first eight months of the year at 2.7 million
Low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and EasyJet have complained about the increase in charges they pay to AENA for using Barajas.
Overall, Spain’s airports suffered a 2.1% fall in traffic volumes in August, the fifth-biggest in the European Union after Estonia, Cyprus, Slovakia and Hungary. Passenger numbers at Sevilla airport fell 16.7%, Bilbao 10.5% and Valencia 16.7%. Málaga and Palma de Mallorca, however, bucked the general trend and registered increases of 2.8% and 1.5% respectively.
EU airports as a whole saw traffic volumes rise by 2.4% during August, with the biggest winners being Poland, Britain, Ireland, the Nordic countries, Portugal, Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia and Malta. London Heathrow experienced a rise of 7.7% in passenger numbers and Paris-Orly registered a 6.0% rise.