Low cost airlines increase at Malaga

Low-cost airlines transported 35 million passengers throughout Spain in 2013, an increase of 4.7% when compared to the prior year figures, according to data released by the Institute of Tourism Studies yesterday. ITE is part of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism. Spanish airports most often utilised by these companies were Barcelona airport, with 7.16 million passengers and an increase of 7.4%, Palma airport, with 6 million passengers and an increase of 7.8%, Malaga airport with 4.1 million passengers transferred, 11% increase, and Alicante airport, with an increase of 13.7% and 3.60 million passengers.

On the other hand, traditional airlines transported 29.5 million passengers, 0.8% less than during 2012. Thus, low-cost airlines carried more than half of the air traffic between January and December 2013, 54.3% versus traditional airlines, that only shared 45.8% of passengers. During the month of December, 3.9 million international passengers arrived in Spain via air, 8.7% more than during 2012. Of all the arrivals, 1.9 million passengers chose low-cost airlines, 48.7% of the total figures for air traffic transfers.

Germany and UK lead the number of arrivals in low-cost airlines during 2013, with 19% and 32.2% of passengers selecting this option. The British market grew by 5.7%, with more than 11.6 million passengers, and the German market rose by 11.2% (6.6 million). In third place, Italy with 3.27 million passengers, 11% less and 9.4% of the total number of arrivals of low-cost airlines. France follows with 6.9% share and 2.4 million passengers, 3.5% more than the previous year. After that, the Netherlands, 1.8 million passengers, showing a loss of 0.2%. Norway's percentage increase was the highest, 32.1% during 2013 and a total of 876.138. Visitors from Sweden increased by 15.5%, reaching 731.456 passengers.