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Aena Posts October Gains as Barcelona Hits New Highs and Santiago Slides

Airline scheduling choices together with terminal works are driving a sharply uneven recovery across Spain’s airports.

Overview

  • The Aena network handled about 35.1 million passengers in October, up 4.5% year over year, with aircraft movements rising 4.3% and air cargo up 9.3%.
  • BarcelonaEl Prat logged its best October with 5.24 million passengers (+5.6%) and 48.9 million from January to October (+4.3%), with T1 renovations testing operations as Aena signals the airport will surpass its capacity threshold this year.
  • Vitoria–Foronda recorded the best October in its history with 31,346 passengers (+21.8%) and reached 257,140 travelers in the first ten months (+12.5%), after which Volotea launched Madrid and Barcelona routes on November 6 for at least two years while Ryanair trimmed 2,000 winter seats.
  • Córdoba surged to 4,810 passengers in October (+619%) and reached 22,034 January–October, nearing its annual record as Vueling’s CórdobaBarcelona link and Binter’s CórdobaGran Canaria service drove most of the monthly traffic.
  • Santiago–Lavacolla served 276,814 passengers in October, deepening a 2025 decline to 375,465 fewer users year to date and standing out as the only large Spanish airport losing traffic, with fewer flights, weaker load factors, falling cargo, and a region-wide summer loss in Galicia even as Spain set new highs.