There were 37,391 international flights, a rise of 1.9 %
The ENAIRE Control Centre in Barcelona managed a total of 58,453 flights in March, 3.1% more than the same month in 2016. Easter fell in March this year.
All traffic segments rose. There were 37,391 international flights, i.e., 1.9% more; 13,498 domestic flights (+4.6%) and 7,564 overflights (flights that cross the airspace of the east of the peninsula and that neither start nor end in Spain) (+6.7%).
Cumulative figures
In the first quarter of the year, the ENAIRE Control Centre in Barcelona managed 154,797 flights, 4.5% more, of which 97,565 were international (5.1%); 35,810 were domestic (3.5%) and 21,422 were overflights (3.5%).
The ENAIRE Barcelona Control Centre handles ATC and flight information for aircraft flying over FIR/UIR Barcelona in an area of approximately 300,000 sq km covering the east of the Iberian Peninsula and part of the Mediterranean Sea, including the Balearic Islands in the upper airspace.
Total flights managed by ENAIRE
ENAIRE managed 140,715 flights across Spain in March, a rise of 4.4% over the same month last year. It was the 42nd month in a row of uninterrupted air traffic growth.
Growth was strongest amongst international flights, which climbed to 79,314, or 4.6% more than last March. There were 31,175 domestic flights, a rise of 2.2%.
There were 30,226 overflights (those that neither start nor end at a Spanish airport) (6.3 %).
Traffic was up across nearly all ENAIRE control centres: Seville (7.9%, 29,121 flights), Madrid (5.7%, 83,843 flights), Canaries (4.8%, 28,398 flights), Barcelona (3.1%, 58,453 flights) and Palma (-2.8 %, 13,242 flights).
The cumulative figures for January to March show that ENAIRE managed 385,622 flights across Spain, 5.2% more. Of these, international flights (216,446) grew the most, at 6.9%, and accounted for 56% of total traffic in Spain.
Of note was the fact that in the first quarter of the year, Spain’s 5.2% growth far exceeded the European average (2.7%).