Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) shows a trend towards levels recorded in the pre-pandemic period, with the month of October recording an average daily disembarkation of 90.7 thousand passengers at national airports (97.2 thousand in the previous month), 5.6% above the value of October 2019 (85.9 thousand).

Between January and October, the number of passengers handled increased by 145.5%, compared to the same period in 2021 (-7.0% compared to the same period in 2019), with the United Kingdom being the main country of origin and destination of flights, with the growth of 257.4% in the number of disembarked passengers and 262.3% in the number of embarked passengers, followed by France and Spain (+238.6% in the number of disembarked passengers and +232.0% in the number of boarded passengers).

Of the passengers disembarking in October at national airports, 81.9% corresponded to international traffic (80% in the same month of 2021), the majority (69.9%) coming from the European continent, while of passengers boarded, 82.2% corresponded to international traffic (80% in October 2021), with main destination airports on the European continent (69.9% of the total).

Lisbon airport handled 48.7% of total passengers (23.6 million) and recorded a growth of 164.3%, compared to the same period of 2021 (-11.3% compared to the same period of 2019), but considering the three airports with the highest annual passenger traffic, Faro recorded the highest growth compared to 2021 (+167.6%) and Porto the closest approach to 2019 levels (-4.2%), highlights the institute.

In October, 20.6 thousand aircraft on commercial flights landed at national airports, corresponding to 5.7 million passengers, and 19.1 thousand tons of cargo and mail were handled (+27.7%, +42.6%, and +5.1%, respectively, compared to October 2021).

Compared with October 2019, there were increases of 2.3% in the number of aircraft landed and 4% in passengers handled, with the movement of cargo and mail decreasing by 3.4% (-1.4%, -1%, and +4% in the previous month, respectively).