"In the first half of 2021, there was a 44.6 percent decrease in the number of passengers handled at national airports (-64.5 percent in the same period of 2020; +7.1 percent in the same period of 2019)", revealed the air transport statistics for June this year, released on 18 August.

When compared to the first half of 2019, the reduction was of 80.4 percent.

In the first six months of this year, Lisbon airport handled 46 percent of total passengers (2.5 million) and registered a decrease of 55.4 percent, the sharpest of the three airports with the highest annual passenger traffic, while Faro returned occupying the third position among the airports with the largest movement of passengers in this period (575,000; -28.1 percent).

Even though, the month of June maintained the growth trend of air transport, with national airports registering a movement of approximately two million passengers, while the movement of cargo and mail totalled 15,600 tons.

However, INE recalled that in the same month of 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was very little traffic at airports.

When compared to June 2019, the movement of passengers decreased by 66 percent and the movement of cargo and mail decreased by 4.7 percent.

Faro airport concentrated 57 percent of passengers from UK flights between 17 May and 7 June.

As for the origin of passengers disembarking at national airports, in June, 70.9 percent corresponded to international traffic (80.6 percent in the same period of the previous year), mostly from airports located on the European continent (63.2 percent).

Regarding embarked passengers, 70.4 percent corresponded to international traffic (75.1 percent in the same period of the previous year), with the main destination being airports located on the European continent (64.5 percent).

Considering the volume of passengers disembarked and embarked on international flights, in the first half of 2021, France was the main country of origin and destination of flights, followed by the United Kingdom, despite recording the largest year-on-year decreases in disembarked and embarked passengers (- 62.4 percent and -65.6 percent, respectively), and Germany occupied the third position.