• In terms of connecting traffic, Barcelona has achieved 10% of the total number of passengers handled by the infrastructure, a similar volume in recent years.

• The infrastructure closed 2024 with more than 55 million passengers handled, an increase of +10.3% compared to 2023 and +4.5% compared to 2019.

• Among the main novelties in the 2024-2025 winter offer, the increase in frequencies to Philadelphia, Beijing, Shenzhen, Jiddah or Abu Dhabi stands out, as well as the entry of new routes and/or operators, such as Te *way for the route to Seoul, Iberojet for Tegucigalpa-Palmerola, or Level for Miami.

• Barcelona is positioned as the third European airport in terms of intra-European supply for the 24-25 winter season, both in terms of volume of seats and volume of destinations.

Barcelona-El Prat Airport consolidates its key role on the European and international air scene during the 2024-2025 winter season, with strategic growth in intercontinental connectivity. Specifically, El Prat has maintained its position as the 2nd airport in origin-destination (O&D) traffic, with 23 million passengers, behind only London-Heatrhow, and as the 7th European airport in total passenger traffic. Even so, Barcelona is positioned as the 5th European city in O&D traffic, surpassing Madrid, Rome and Amsterdam, but behind London, Paris, Istanbul and Milan.

These data underline the importance of Barcelona as a tourist and economic destination, differentiating it from large airport hubs such as Istanbul or Frankfurt, where connecting traffic is more important. This is according to the 50th Barcelona Air Traffic Observatory, published by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce.

El Prat closes a historic 2024 in terms of passengers

In terms of managed demand in 2024, the airport recorded a total of 55.03 million passengers, an increase of +10.3% over 2023, thus surpassing pre-pandemic levels (+4.5% over 2019) and setting a new all-time record for total passengers.

Growth has been solid in the first half of 2024, with significant increases during May (+11.5%) and June (13.3%) mainly due to the large volume of cultural, sporting and leisure *esdevediments that the city of Barcelona hosts during the intense summer months. However, during the second half of the year a progressive slowdown is observed, with August standing out as the month with the highest passenger traffic (5.42 million passengers, +9% vs. 2023). October and November closed with more moderate growth of 8.2% and 5.7%, respectively.

In terms of punctuality, during 2024 the airport maintained an acceptable performance of 74.9% in arrivals and 65.7% in departures, which places it in an *intermediate-high position with respect to the main European airports, ahead of infrastructures such as Fiumicino (FCO) or Lisbon (LIS).

Boosting intercontinental supply for the winter season

By the 2024-2025 winter season, Barcelona Airport will be connected to 44 intercontinental destinations (operating the entire season) and will offer a capacity of 3.06 million seats, a growth of +14.2% compared to the 2023-2024 winter season.

It is worth highlighting the increase in frequencies on some routes such as Philadelphia (American Airlines will operate daily for practically the entire season), Beijing (Air China increases from 3 to 5 weekly frequencies), Shenzhen (Shenzhen Airlines increases to 3 weekly frequencies for the entire season), Jiddah (Saudia increases from 2 to 3 weekly frequencies) and Abu Dhabi (Etihad increases from 7 to 10 weekly frequencies).

On the other hand, this winter season there are also new routes and/or operators compared to the previous winter in long-haul, such as T'way (route to Seoul), Iberojet (route to Tegucigalpa-Palmerola) or Level (route to Miami).

Domestic routes lead in capacity with 6.4 million seats (more than 26.8% of the total), with Vueling as the main operator. European routes, with 14.4 million seats, show a 7% reduction in the number of operators, although dominated by low-cost carriers such as Vueling (36.3%) and Ryanair (19.9%).

Barcelona is positioned as the third European airport in terms of intra-European offer for the winter season 24-25, both in terms of volume of seats and volume of destinations.

Barcelona Airport is positioned only behind Amsterdam and Madrid (in seat volume), and occupies fourth position in intra-European destinations, after Amsterdam and London-Stansted. In terms of average daily frequencies per European destination, Barcelona has 2.6 frequencies, below the major European hubs (LHR, AMS, FRAY CDG, MAD), but ahead of major airports such as Rome (FCO), Munich (MUC) and Istanbul (IST).

In terms of seat supply to other continents, Barcelona is the 16th European airport with the most capacity to North and Central America, while in terms of destinations in South America it ranks 9th.

These data and others are included in the 50th issue of the Barcelona Air Traffic Observatory.

The Barcelona Air Traffic Observatory is a periodical publication of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce that aims to highlight relevant trends in Barcelona's air traffic and is aimed at all those interested in airport development. Link to all observatories.