A recovery of 36% of departing passengers in December 2020

In December 38,242 Revenue Generating Passengers (RGPs) travelled out of the Queen Beatrix International Airport (AUA Airport) to the various markets. This was 22% more than November 2020. In December 29,019 passengers (pax) travelled to the US, 420 to Canada, 3,825 pax to Europe, 1,471 pax to the Netherlands Antilles and a total of 3,507 pax travelled to Latin America, including one humanitarian flight to Venezuela with 101 pax. The figures for December 2020 are 37% less than what was forecasted for this month and compared to 2019 AUA Airport has recovered 36% during December versus the same month 2019.

An average outbound load factor (LF) (number of seats of the total seats on board an aircraft that are occupied when departing from AUA Airport) for the US Market of 40% (excluding de-densification of aircraft) was reported during the period of December 1 through 31, 2020, while the LF for the European market was 45%. 

During December, AUA Airport averaged 21 flights per day, down from about 37 daily flights from the same month last year.

For 2020 a total of 430,496 RGPs were processed at Aruba Airport which signifies a recovery of 34% of the total traffic that departed and was processed in 2019. For 2021, based on the latest insights that AUA Airport has from its stakeholders such as the airlines, it is expected that an approximate amount of 582,000 departing passengers will be handled which is a recovery of 46% of the traffic that was generated in 2019.

“We continue to recover traffic slowly but surely in the coming winter season months which is the busiest season for AUA Airport. We hope to continue this recovery of our airlift in this manner in 2021. The load factors have yet to further improve, and we hope that the planned air service by our airline partners will continue accordingly for the remainder of the winter season 2021,” said Aruba Airport Authority N.V. CEO Mr. Joost Meijs.