AUA Airport recovered 65% of 2019 departing passenger amounts during April and May of 2021

ORANJESTAD – Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) can report as follows on AUA Airport’s performance for April and May of 2021; two outstanding months so far since the pandemic hit back in March of 2020.

In April and May of 2021, AUA Airport handled respectively 65,651 and 70,452 departing passengers. April was 40% more than March and May 7% more than April. During the past two months AUA Airport recovered 65% of the amount of departing passenger that were handled in 2019 during those same months. In the months of April and May 2021 120,320 passengers (pax) travelled to the US, 7,131 pax to Europe, 2,468 pax to the Netherlands Antilles, and 6,184 pax to Latin America. The total departures during April and May are 69% more than what was forecasted for this period.

An average outbound passenger load factor (PLF) (number of seats of the total seats on board an aircraft that are occupied when departing from AUA Airport) for the US Market of 71% (*) was reported during the months of April and May 2021, while the average PLF for all markets was at 68% during that same period (in comparison to 2019 where an average PLF for all markets of 85% was reached).

(*Excluding de-densification of aircraft for April – as of May carriers are no longer blocking seats on board)

During the past two months, AUA Airport averaged 23 flights per day, down from 35 daily flights during the same period in 2019. In that same period in 2020 AUA Airport only handled a total amount of 27 flights whilst the national border was closed for commercial operations.

Based on the latest available insights AUA Airport now expects to recover 60% of its traffic for the year 2021 when comparing this to the year 2019 by reaching approximately 760K departing pax. This would mean an increase of 77% versus the year 2020 when we handled a total of 430K departing passengers.