Gibraltar Airport saw a passenger percent change of 70% more movements, 9.0% increase in cargo courier and +18.3% of aircraft traffic movements in 2022 compared to 2021. The information provided in this post and video come from Gibraltar Air Traffic Statistics on the Gibraltar Airport website.
The large increase in travel of course can be attributed to the ease of travel restrictions. In 2020 the Gibraltar Airport only saw 186,069 passenger movements compared to 446,187 in 2022. With travel restrictions winding down it has certainly brought more vibrancy to the area and passenger count reflects this.
Summary:
Passenger Movements: 446,187
Cargo: 128,805 kgs
Aircraft Movements: 3,868
January 2022 saw the least amount of passenger traffic with 15,175 movements. That number is substantially higher compared to January 2021 which only saw 3,756 passenger movements. Keep in mind this is a sum of passengers landing and departing at/from Gibraltar International Airport.
September 2022 saw the largest amount of passenger movements at 49,101.
That averages to about 1,636 people per day.
23,684 passenger arrivals or 789 per day, with
25,417 passenger departures or 847 per day for that month.
Most of the planes I observe at Gibraltar Airport are A320's with the mix of A319's, private jets, and RAF aircraft. To make things easy, let's just average out 175 passengers per commercial flight. Over a 30 day period in September that equates to about an average of 2.5 commercial flights landing and 2.5 commercial flights departing per day, during the busiest month of 2022.
This is not taking into account private jet passengers or RAF crew landing and departing (I don't know if those are in these statistics the airport provided, the information does not say). There were 390 aircraft movements in September 2022, or an average of 13 per day. An average of 3-5 commercial flights per day in September 2022 seems legit. September also seems to be one of my biggest months for filming aircraft landing and departing at Gibraltar.
Cargo, Mail, Courier at Gibraltar airport in 2022 saw a total of 120,805 kgs transported with December being the largest month at 24,495 kgs. December also saw a couple of chartered flights from Morrisons to bring in more food for their grocery stores for the Christmas season, this could have very well played a large part in the increase of courier cargo at Gibraltar Airport during that month in 2022. GBC covers that in the following video:
In 2022 Gibraltar International Airport saw a total of 3,868 aircraft movements, up 598 from its number in 2021 of 3,270 aircraft movements. May 2022 saw the most aircraft movements at 406 while January held the least at 188. The total aircraft movements was up 18.3% compared to 2021.
Despite some logistical issues in late 2022 such as phone cable being cut, inclement weather, and some issues with refueling, that year saw a nice rebound after the 2020 and early 2021 travel restrictions.
Gibraltar Airport seems on course to have a thriving 2023 year, and I'm hoping so. There is nothing quite like Gibraltar International Airport, crossing the runway, climbing up The Rock and overlooking the airport runway. A thriving tourism industry is important to Gibraltar and Southern Spain, and Gibraltar International Airport plays a vital role in that!
Gibraltar is currently serviced by carriers British Airways and easyJet with direct flights from Gibraltar to Bristol, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, and Manchester. Recently the new Edinburgh flight was pulled, and I'm sad to see that one go.
Thanks for reading and be sure to take a look at some of my other articles reporting on and about the Gibraltar Airport. Be sure to subscribe to Ministry of Flight on YouTube for excellent videos of planes at Gibraltar!
Check out this short documentary about the Road on the Runway at Gibraltar Airport.
Final note: A while back I had a short conversation with some runners who stopped at my location for a quick break. I chatted with them briefly and when I told her my channel name, she responded "oh, is that with the government?" My response was "no, I made it up only to find out that everything else revolving around British and Gibraltar Government is named Ministry." For the record, this channel is not affiliated with any government entity, it's just a name I made up and all of the opinions in my articles and videos are solely mine unless documented as otherwise.
My great thanks goes out to the following sources I used to gather information for this article.
Sources:
thank you for providing this content. I see that there is not too many views which is a pity. But definitively it is appreciated!
Greetings,Sven