Portugal’s national airports handled some 16 million passengers in the fourth quarter of 2024, new data from INE, the Portuguese statistics body has found.
As part of its analysis of passenger transport in the final quarter of last year, INE noted that passenger traffic through the country’s airports was up 4.1%, year-on-year in Q4, and up 3.1% year-on-year in Q3.
Train travel
In terms of Portugal’s train network, passenger numbers totalled 57.4 million in the fourth quarter, a 6.9% increase year-on-year, compared to a 2.8% increase the previous quarter.
Passenger numbers travelling by metro increased to 76.8 million, a 10.3% gain on the corresponding quarter a year earlier. In Q3, passenger numbers by metro rose by 7.2%.
Elsewhere, inland waterways experienced a 7.9% increase in passengers (compared to a 5.4% increase in Q3), with 5.8 million passengers transported.
Passenger transport in 2024
For the full year of 2024, passenger growth was evident across all transport sectors, with air transport growing by 4.3%, following an 18.9% rise in 2023, INE said.
Train travel saw a 9.3% increase, building on the 16.7% rise from the previous year, while metro transport grew by 8.9%, up from a 20.7% increase in 2023. Inland waterways experienced a 6.7% increase, compared to a 21.5% increase the previous year.
The significant increases reported in 2023 were largely down to Portugal emerging from pandemic-related lockdowns in 2022.
Elsewhere, in terms of goods transport, air freight rose by 12.6%, while sea freight increased by 10.5% and rail transport also grew by 4.3%. However, road transport saw a decline of 12.8%. Read more here.
