Portuguese airport arrivals from UK increased 1.5% year-on-year between January and November 2024
The number of passengers from the United Kingdom travelling to Portugal is growing, with new data revealing that the UK remains the top source of international passengers flying into the country. Between January and November 2024, the number of passengers arriving from the UK rose by 1.5% compared to the previous year.
In total, over 4.5 million passengers travelling from the UK landed at Portuguese airports during the first 11 months of 2024, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
France follows in second place, with over 3.9 million passengers arriving in Portugal by plane (a 3.3% drop compared to the year prior), ahead of Spain (3.7 million passengers, +2.8%), Germany (2.4 million, +6.2%) and Italy (1.5 million, +3.8%).
The trend helped push Portugal’s airport traffic to record highs, with 65.73 million passengers passing through its airports – a 4.3% increase from 2023.
The Algarve’s Faro Airport, the preferred landing spot for Brits seeking sun and sandy beaches, handled 9.5 million passengers, up 1.9% year-on-year. Even more passengers touched down at Lisbon airport, which handled 49.4% of all passengers (32.5 million, up 4.3% year-on-year), followed by Porto, with a share of 22.5% and 14.8 million passengers (+4.9% compared to the same period in 2023).
Further data showed that Portuguese airports registered a record average of 75,800 daily arrivals in November – a 7.1% increase from the 70,800 recorded during the same month in 2023. This growth was accompanied by a significant rise in commercial flights, with 16,700 aircraft carrying 4.7 million passengers in November, marking a 6.2% year-on-year increase.
It wasn’t just passengers driving the numbers up. Cargo and mail transport also soared, with a 14.7% increase in volume during the first 11 months of 2024, compared to a 0.9% decline in 2023. In November alone, 22,700 tons of goods were handled, a 10.6% rise.
