With growth in passenger traffic coming much faster than expected, Spanish airport operator AENA says it expects passenger traffic across its 50 Spanish airports to cross 300 million mark by 2025, a year ahead than the previous forecast.

Spanish airport operator AENA says it expects more than 300 million passengers in its Spanish terminals in 2025, reaching that volume a year earlier than it had forecast in 2022. 

In a press statement, AENA which manages 50 airports across the Iberian nation, says its passenger numbers are recovering more rapidly than those of other airport operators in Europe, and it expects to manage around 1 million per day by 2026.

Besides the 50 airports in Spain, AENA also has a controlling interest in London Luton airport, and a portfolio of more than 30 airports across Latin America.

AENA says that traffic at Spain’s airports rose 16 pc to a record 283.2 million passengers last year, 3 pc more than in 2019. Tourism is rebounding in the country after years of pandemic-related disruptions.

However, AENA says that last year’s passenger traffic at Spain’s two biggest airports, Madrid and Barcelona, did not surpass pre-pandemic numbers recorded in 2019. It adds that it expects a full recovery of these figures in 2024.

The airport operator says that this positive outlook is further cemented by the Spain passenger forecast of around 294 million for 2024, bolstered by summer season projections of about 7 pc more scheduled flights than last year.

The statement adds that Aena forecast a more than 20 pc rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from 2023 to 2026. The company expects 48 pc growth in its commercial revenue in 2026 compared to 2019.

It says that the anticipated passenger growth is in line with its investment plan, which aims to double investments relative to recent years from 2027 to 2031. That will include further expansion and enhancements to AENA’s airport infrastructure, mainly in Spain.