Traffic volumes: majority-owned international subsidiaries

Passenger volumes

Brazil

Overall, the Brazilian aviation segment handled around 208 million passengers in 2023. While domestic services grew year-on-year by 11%, international traffic increased by a total of 38%, resulting in an overall plus of 13%. Despite this strong growth, however, passenger volumes have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Domestic services were around 4% below and international traffic was approximately 10% below their respective 2019 volumes.

Florianópolis
With a year-on-year increase of 17%, passenger numbers at Florianópolis surpassed the level of 2019. Among other things, this massive boost was driven by the strong growth in international travel. Regular international flights to Lima, Santiago de Chile and Montevideo were successfully added.

Vitória/Macaé
Traffic volumes at Vitória and Macaé airports increased 20% year on year. Owing to the construction of the new runway at Macaé, aircraft were only able to take off and land during part of the 2023 financial year, which reduced the number of passengers carried compared with 2022. Boasting some 28,000 flight movements during the reporting year, Macaé counts as one of the busiest airports for helicopter traffic in the world.

Chile

The Chilean aviation segment carried around 40 million passengers in 2023. Domestic services grew by 14% year on year, while international traffic increased by just under 40%. In contrast to Brazil, domestic flights surpassed 2019 levels by almost 2%. The number of international passengers was still 12% below pre-pandemic volumes, however. 2023 saw a further upswing in the mining industry, which consequently drove up growth at the airports operated by Zurich Airport Ltd. In comparison with the previous year, the two airports reported a cumulative rise in passenger numbers of around 10%. Both these concessions surpassed 4 million passengers annually for the first time.

Antofagasta
Antofagasta in particular posted solid growth, which is entirely attributable to the launch of new mining projects. With an increase of just under 17% compared with the previous year, the airport set a new passenger record. New destinations Cali and Lima were added to its international route network during the reporting year.

Iquique
Iquique can likewise report a record-breaking year for passenger numbers. In the past, it has posted the highest passenger volumes during the summer months of January and February. For the first time ever, the month of July overtook these dominant tourism months. As with Antofagasta, this was driven by activity in the mining industry.

Key data