Over 50m choose El Prat
The sustained growth of Barcelona airport has been confirmed with 6.1% more users in 2018 than in the previous year
Barcelona-El Prat airport beat its own record again with 50,172,457 passengers in 2018, 6.1% more than the previous year. 2017 in turn saw 47.3 million travelers pass through the airport, 6.4% than the previous year. This data was released yesterday by Aena and the Catalan News Agency (ACN in Catalan) has spread the word as echoes of the controversy surrounding the airport’s name change are still up in the air. If the decision made at the controversial Council of Ministers held on December 21 in Barcelona is put into practice, the airport’s name will be changed to take the name of President Josep Tarradellas.
In any event, the figures certainly confirm that this Catalan airport is undergoing sustained growth. Indeed, in December alone, almost 3.5 million users passed through El Prat, 9.5% more than in December 2017.
Passengers on international flights totalled 36,668,175 in 2018, 6.2% more than the previous year, and internal flights increased by 5.7%.
In terms of the transport of goods, in 2018, 172,940 tonnes were moved from Barcelona-El Prat, 10.8% more than the previous year, a growth that reaches 12.1% for December, when the airport moved 14,758 tonnes.
Last year over 50 million passengers departed from or arrived to El Prat in 335,651 registered aircraft movements, 3.7% more than in 2017, with an increase of 4.1% for international flights, with 239,504 take-offs and landings, and an increase of 3.3% for internal flights with 93,450 flights. Finally, 172,939 tonnes of merchandise were transported in 2018, 10.8% more than in 2017.