The private aircraft industry in Ibiza airport has definitely emerged not only consolidated but strengthened from the health crisis caused by the covid pandemic, which started in mid-March last year.
At the end of June 2020, as soon as central government decided to relax transport restrictions, private aircraft activity picked up considerably all over the world, and of course also in Ibiza. While commercial traffic was suffering and struggling to put planes in the sky, private jets were taking off effortlessly.
And that momentum continues. In fact, in the first nine months of this year Ibiza airport has registered more private aircraft movements and more passengers on this type of transport than during the whole of any year since 2011, the last year for which AENA has statistics available.
From January to September, Codolar has handled 12,307 private aircraft operations (counting landings and take-offs), whereas in 2018, the busiest year for this sector for which AENA statistics were available until now, the figure was 12,159, almost 150 fewer than in just nine months of this financial year.
Ibiza Airport: best performance since 2011
The number of passengers on private jets is also higher in these nine months than the annual totals of the last decade. For the first time since records began, the Pitiusa terminal has exceeded 30,000 passengers on private jets, with a total of 31,559, and that in just nine months. The closest figure was achieved in the twelve months of 2017, when the terminal had 29,296 passengers.
In the absence of data from the last three months, this year, the first after the health crisis and the year which saw a tentative but strong tourism revival, will become the best year in history for private aviation in Ibiza.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.