Catalonia’s airports come almost to a standstill

Barcelona El Prat airport’s passenger numbers for April are further evidence of the Covid-19 crisis’s impact on daily life in Catalonia. An unprecedented 99.4% fewer passengers traveled through the airport in April than during the same month in 2019 as only 25,307 people landed in or took off from the Catalan capital. A year earlier in April 2019, the figure was at 4,522,810 – the all-time high. Operations also suffered a dramatic 95% fall, with 1,499 flights arriving and departing from Barcelona.

In March, the airport figures were already down 64.3% compared to the same time a year earlier as the state of alarm came into force on March 14. And in February, the number of passengers only grew by 0.2%, the lowest increase in a long time, something that could be explained by the Mobile World Congress’ cancellation due to the pandemic. Given the reduction in air traffic, much of the airport was closed off towards the end of March, including all of Terminal 2, with all activity concentrated in areas A and D of Terminal 1.

The figures released on Wednesday show that 8,120,361 passengers traveled through the airport during the first four months of the year, down 46% compared to January to April 2019. As for the other two main airports managed by Spain in Catalonia, both Girona (71 users) and Reus (163) suffered an almost 100% reduction in passengers.