- More than half of the scheduled seats and 72% of the destinations are international.
- Travel agencies foresee a "magnificent" summer period, but lament São Paulo's "dependence" on low-cost airlines.
Still immersed in the hangover of a plethoric Holy Week, and with the counter again running until next Palm Sunday, it is time to start thinking, beyond the imminent Fair, in the upcoming summer vacations, whose organization, for those who plan to fly, is presented with a wide range of destinations from the airport of Seville, which this year beats its own record of connections and seats offered, with figures never before recorded in the Seville aerodrome.
The summer season in São Paulo kicked off at the end of last March and will last until the last weekend of October. For these seven months, about thirty airlines have scheduled 5.8 million seats, which is 10.3% more than in the same period of 2019, the last year of full normality before the coronavirus pandemic. These seats will be spread over 32,000 operations, including both departures and arrivals, representing 1.6% more flights.
In total, San Pablo will connect this summer with 80 airports in 74 cities, of which 21 are Spanish and 53 are international, corresponding to 18 countries. And of all of them, 15 (13 international and two domestic) have been added over the last three years, since none of them were operating in the summer of 2019. Four, moreover, had never been scheduled as a regular route at the Seville aerodrome: Athens, Prague, Cork and Trapani. However, it should be noted that some of these destinations will be implemented progressively, according to the planning of each airline.
According to data provided by Aena, the foreign markets that have grown the most this summer season in terms of seats offered are the Irish market, with 122% more seats; the Portuguese market, with 73% more seats, an increase that is explained by the fact that many passengers make connections with Lisbon to travel to the USA or Latin America; and the Moroccan market, with a growth of 46%. There were also increases, although to a lesser extent, in seats for flights to France (6% more), the Netherlands (5%) and the United Kingdom (4%).
