THIS SUMMER, 18 new regular flights and 27 charter flights are being operated out of Faro Airport. These new additions bring the airport’s total number of connections this summer to 80 scheduled flights and 38 charter flights, per week. In March 2006, new routes were added, making it possible to fly to five new destinations from Faro Airport; they are Stockholm (Sweden), Norwich (UK), Basel (Switzerland), Charleroi (Belgium) and Rostock (Germany).
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is predicting an increase in air traffic for Portugal in July and August this year, of around 2.7 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively, in comparison with the same months in 2005. According to data made available by the Secretary of State for Tourism, these figures indicate a positive variation overall, with air traffic increasing by 3.5 per cent against last year.
In relation to the Algarve, the main markets in terms of tourists visiting the Algarve are Germany and the UK. This is reflected in the increased number of services being operated from these countries to Faro Airport (seven and 26 respectively).
Scandinavian airline Sterling, which already operates flights to Faro between February and October, has confirmed that it will offer a weekly flight between Faro and Copenhagen during November, December and January. Golf tour operators, Krone Golf Tours and Green2Green, will launch two charter flights with direct links between Billund (Denmark) and Faro. Therefore, the Algarve will boast a new weekly connection between February and April, the high season for golf.
The new flights have been introduced at a time when the Danish market has registered growth over the first four months of this year, which may have been as a result of the promotional campaign launched in Denmark by the Associação de Turismo do Algarve (ATA). In total, 25,000 euros was spent on posters advertising the Algarve, which were displayed on 325 buses in the centre of Copenhagen in the second week of April.
