Low cost airlines are flying high in Spain

PALMA
PALMA was the third most used airport by low cost airlines flying into Spain last year. Some 8.2 million passengers arrived in the city on low cost airlines, an increase of 3.7 percent on the year before.

Low cost airlines transported 23.9 million passengers to Spain in 2007, an increase of 33.9 percent on 2006, against a 3.3 percent decline registered by traditional airlines.

According to figures released yesterday by the Spanish Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce, low cost airlines covered 39.9 percent of the total international flights to Spain last year. In December, a total of 1.6 million passengers flew to Spain on low cost airlines, some 35.4 more than during the same month the year before.

The amount of passengers arriving by low cost airlines represented 41.7 percent of the total, while 58.3 percent of arrivals were by traditional airlines.

However, the number of passengers using traditional airlines fell by 4.3 percent in comparison with December 2006.
The three main low cost airlines in 2007 were Ryanair (9.1 percent), Easyjet (7.1 percent), and Air Berlin (6 percent).
Their respective increases from 2006 to 2007 were 47.7 percent, 18.3 percent and 10.6 percent.