According to the report Transport Activity June 2020 - Rapid air transport statistics, published by INE, “in June 2020, 3.0 thousand aircraft landed on national airports on commercial flights, which represents a year-on-year variation of -86, 0 percent (-92.3 percent in May and -94.3 percent in April)”, registering the movement of 318.2 thousand passengers (boardings, arrivals and direct transits), which represents a negative year-on-year change of 94.6 percent (-98.5 percent in May and -99.4 percent in April).

The movement of cargo and mail at national airports also registered a decrease of 54.1 percent (-55.5 percent in May and -62.6 percent in April), totalling 7.5 thousand tons.

“The impact of the covid-19 pandemic and the measures adopted at the level of airspace as of the beginning of the second half of March is visible, and the slow recovery, registering, during the month of June, reductions greater than 80 percent in the number of aircraft landed and equal to or greater than 90 percent in the number of passengers disembarked”, says INE.

In an analysis in the first six months of the year, INE concluded that 46,100 commercial aircraft landed at national airports (-57.7 percent over the same period) and 9.9 million passengers were handled (-64.5 percent).

Lisbon airport handled 57.1 percent of total passengers (5.7 million) and recorded a decrease of 61.3 percent.

Considering the three airports with the highest passenger traffic, Faro was the one that showed the greatest decrease in the number of passengers handled between January and June 2020 (-79.9 percent).

As for the countries of origin and destination of flights, in the first half of 2020, France ranked first, followed by the United Kingdom.

However, the second main country of origin and destination showed the greatest reduction in the number of passengers disembarked and embarked (-72.2 percent and -69.8 percent, respectively).

Also considering the first half of the year, there was a 28.0 percent decrease in cargo and mail movement at national airports, which reached 71.1 thousand tons.

The movement of goods at Lisbon airport represented 66.6 percent of the total, reaching 47.4 thousand tons, a decrease of 34.2 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

Measures to combat the pandemic have paralysed entire sectors of the world economy and have led the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make unprecedented predictions in its nearly 75 years: the world economy may fall 4.9 percent in 2020, dragged by a contraction of 8 percent in the United States, 10.2 percent in the euro area and 5.8 percent in Japan.

The effects of the pandemic were already reflected in the Portuguese economy in the second quarter, with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) falling 16.5 percent compared to the same period in 2019, according to INE data.