"For the first time, the Portuguese capital’s airport served more than 30 million passengers in a period of 12 consecutive months," reads a statement released on Friday by Vinci.

According to the figures released by Vinci, the group’s facilities worldwide served more than 72 million passengers in the third quarter alone, up 6.9% on the same period of 2018. ANA accounted for the largest single slice, at 18.425 million passengers in the quarter.

Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport saw almost half of the latter, at 9.190 million, followed by Porto’s Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, with 3.990 million and Faro with 3.464 million.

According to the company, a year-on-year increase in the quarterly figure for Portugal of 6.7% was thanks to “an excellent tourist season", with Lisbon airport benefiting from "the recent addition of destinations" and Porto from a new direct link with Dubai.

The country accounting for the second-largest slice of Vinci’s passenger total in the third quarter is the UK, with 15.908 million passengers, followed by Japan with 13.486 million.

In the first nine months of this year, Vinci has served 195.508 million people, up 6.8% on the same period of last year, the company said. In Portugal the nine-month total was 45.887 million, broken down into Lisbon with 23.802 million, Porto with 10.052 million and Faro with 7.438 million.