40.47% of foreign passengers arriving in Lanzarote in the first quarter of 2021 were French, which has made France the island's main issuing market, according to figures published in the Cabildo Data Center.
This confirms the change that the pandemic has brought about in terms of the countries that send tourists. The lockdown and restrictions decreed in the United Kingdom, which until before Covid was the main issuing market, have meant that it has been relegated to the last positions.
Specifically, Lanzarote airport received 21,045 international passengers from January to March, of which 8,519 were French. In contrast, only 472 travelers arrived from the United Kingdom, which only represents 2.2% of the total number of foreign passengers who landed on the island in the first quarter of 2021.
Germany remains the second largest issuing market, although only 6,179 travelers arrived from that country (29.3%). In the case of Ireland, it is the third largest issuing market, with 2,159 passengers, representing 10.2%. However, while in January there were 1,622 passengers received by Lanzarote from this country, in February and March there were not even 270, with more arriving from other places such as Luxembourg.
Precisely, Luxembourg has become the fourth largest issuing market for Lanzarote, with 1,019 passengers received in the first quarter of this year. 753 arrived from Belgium, 729 from Italy, 546 from Switzerland, 374 from Poland - all in the month of January -, 260 from the Netherlands and 16 from other non-European places in the world.
The international passenger traffic figures are far from those recorded last year, despite the fact that the state of alarm was declared in March. In the first quarter of 2020, 455,574 foreign travelers arrived at the airport, that is, 434,530 more than from January to March 2021. This represents a decrease of 95.3%.
Regarding the third month of the year, in 2021 there were 5,536 international travelers registered compared to 85,361 last year.
Passengers from the Peninsula
In fact, both in March and in the accumulated first quarter, Lanzarote airport received more national than foreign passengers. Specifically, 26,175 travelers arrived from the Peninsula from January to March, of which 10,453 did so in the last month.
The majority of passengers arriving from the Peninsula in the first quarter of this year came from Madrid, with a total of 14,700 travelers. 6,554 passengers were received from Catalonia, 1,433 from the Basque Country, 1,372 from Andalusia, 1,319 from Galicia, 520 from the Valencian Community and 277 from the Principality of Asturias.
In the first quarter of 2020, 82,505 national passengers landed in Lanzarote, so the year-on-year decrease is 68.27%.
From January to March 2021, passenger traffic at Lanzarote airport was 223,993 travelers, 83.7% less than the previous year. However, the figure recorded in March of this year with a total of 84,980 passengers was higher than that of February, when there were 54,278 travelers.
