Spanish airport traffic drops

 

Passenger traffic in Spain, where 27% of the workforce is unemployed and a hike in taxes last year led low-cost carriers to reduce services to Madrid and Barcelona, airport traffic fell 8% in April to 49 million passengers.

Madrid's Barajas airport lost over 620,000 travellers in April, a 16% drop year-on-year, data from airport authority Aena showed on Friday, while traffic at Barcelona-El Prat fell 4.2%.

While Easter fell in March this year, making for an unfavourable comparison in April, Barajas lost a million passengers over the 2 months compared to 2012, according to the data.