Portuguese airports received 4.3 million passengers in February, which represents a slowdown of 0.5% compared to the same month last year and contradicts the increase of almost 6% recorded at the beginning of the year, reveals a quick statistic from the National Statistics Institute (INE) released this Monday.

According to the INE, in February, there was an average daily disembarkation of 78.6 thousand passengers, a figure that exceeds the number recorded in February 2024 by 2.6%. In the same month, 15.6 thousand aircraft landed at national airports on commercial flights, 0.2% less than in the same period last year.

The vast majority of passengers — 82.9% — disembarking at national airports corresponded to international traffic, reaching 1.8 million passengers (-0.3%), the majority coming from the European continent (68.7% of the total), shows data from IBGE. The American continent was the second main origin, accounting for 8.6% of the total number of passengers disembarking (-6.4%) at national airports.

As for embarked passengers, 82.1% corresponded to international traffic, making a total of 1.7 million passengers (+1.1%). Of these, 68% had airports on the European continent as their main destination, registering a slight growth of 0.3% compared to February 2024. Airports on the American continent were the second main destination for embarked passengers (8.7% of the total; -3.2%).

In terms of countries, France remains the main country of origin and destination for flights in the first two months of 2025. Despite the global monthly slowdown in passenger numbers, France recorded an increase in the number of disembarked and embarked passengers compared to the same period in 2024 (+2.4% and +0.6%, respectively).

The United Kingdom and Spain remain in second and third positions as the main countries of origin and destination. Germany occupied the fourth position and Brazil the fifth.

In the first two months of 2025, Lisbon airport handled 55.8% of total passengers, or 4.8 million. This is an increase of 2.1% compared to the first two months of 2024.

Faro airport recorded a 3.6% growth in passenger movement (674.6 thousand; 7.9% of the total), while Porto airport accounted for 22.9% of the total number of passengers handled (around two million) and increased by 2.2%.