Source: ENAIRE

  • Spain has been one of the leading engines in the recovery of the aviation sector in Europe since 2021, with more flights than average and fewer delays

ENAIRE, an agency of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda (Mitma) that is tasked with managing air navigation in Spain, beat the record for the most flights in Spain’s aviation history in July, with 223,107 operations in one month, equivalent to a daily average of 7,197 flights. This figure confirms the sector’s recovery following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020, as well as ENAIRE’s leading role among European air navigation service providers in recent years.

The Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, celebrated these figures, which make July “a historic month for aviation in our country”. In this regard, she stressed the “importance of figures that confirm Spain’s indisputable role as a driver for a key sector for tourism (around 12% of GDP) and the creation of employment and wealth”.

The head of Mitma also underscored the “importance of teamwork” and the “strong personal commitment of every employee at ENAIRE”, whose excellent work “in all regions and offices” has enabled “the sector to recover at a steady pace throughout the year”.

“Since 2021, our country has been one of the main engines of recovery for aviation, with higher flight numbers than the European average, fewer delays and outstanding performance in safety standards, thanks to the commitment to public service of ENAIRE’s workers”, concluded Raquel Sánchez.

More flights than in July 2019

ENAIRE managed 1.1% more flights in July 2023 than in the same month in 2019, while the average in Europe was 6.8% lower than the average for the continent in the same month of that year, which is typically used as a reference in the sector

Against this backdrop, it is worth noting that on Saturday 22 July, ENAIRE managed 7,449 flights, a new record, thus exceeding the previous record reached in July 2019, when 7,425 flights were managed in one day.

As concerns service quality, in the cumulative totals for the first seven months of 2023, the delays attributable to ENAIRE fell by 43% with respect to 2019.

12.7% more flights between January and July

Spain’s air navigation service provider handled over 1.2 million flights (1,236,835) in the first half of the year, a 12.7% increase over the same period in 2022.

International flights (694,781) increased by 10.6%, domestic (254,970) by 8.9%, and overflights (those that do not depart from or land at a Spanish airport) by 21.9% (287,084).

In these first seven months, ENAIRE’s air traffic control centres saw increases in the number of flights managed. Notable among the cumulative figures are Seville with 279,650 flights managed, a 16.8% increase; Barcelona, with 579,315, 13.1% more; Madrid, with 678,907, 12.6% more; Canary Islands with 214,870, 10.2%; and finally Palma, with 198,657, 3.8% more.

A comparison of January-July 2023 and the same period in 2019, a record year before the pandemic, shows a change of 12.7% in Spain and of 12% with respect to all flights in Europe.

July data

July and August are usually the months with the most flights. With respect to the month of July, as already stated, ENAIRE managed the most flights in the history of aviation with a total of 223,107 operations. This record is 6.6% more than for the same month in 2022. Of those, 131,141 were international (+7.2%), 42,269 domestic (+3%), and 49,697 overflights (+8.4%). It should be noted that the number of flights managed increased at the five air traffic control centres.

With regard to the delays attributable to ENAIRE, despite the traffic increase, compared with July 2019, delays were 25% down, confirming the effectiveness of the measures laid out by ENAIRE in its 2023 Summer Plan.

These good figures confirm Spain’s leading role in aviation traffic management. This leadership and commitment to quality are also correlated to the safety standards and to the strategy to reduce aviation charges implemented by ENAIRE.