“In the first half of 2023, the number of passengers increased by 28.4% compared to the same period in 2022, while the movement of cargo and mail registered a slight decrease (-0.8%)”, informed INE, which published the air transport quick statistics.

Of the total of 31,256,000 passengers handled in the first half, Lisbon airport handled 50.8% (15.9 million), having grown by 30.9% when compared to the same period of 2022 (+8.7% compared to first half of 2019), while Porto airport concentrated 22.6% of total passengers and increased by 28.1% (+14.9% compared to the 1st half of 2019) and Faro airport recorded growth of 20.6% (+5.2% compared to the same period in 2019).

Weight of UK passengers

Considering the volume of disembarked and departed passengers on international flights in the first half of 2023, the United Kingdom was the main country of origin and destination for flights, with a growth of 23.7% in the number of disembarked passengers and 24.9% in the number of boarded passengers, compared to the same period of 2022.

France occupied the second position, with increases of 23.3% and 23.7%, in the same order, followed by Spain, with very expressive increases compared to the first half of 2022 (+47.5%, both as a country of origin or as the destination country of the flights).

In an analysis of the month of June, national airports handled 6.4 million passengers and 17.9 thousand tons of cargo and mail, corresponding to variations of +11.4% and -1.9%, respectively, compared to June 2022.