The number of passengers at Cabo Verde’s (Cape Verde’s) airports fell by 3.4 percent in 2013 from 1.84 million in 2012 to 1.78 million people last year due to a drop in domestic traffic, the Cape Verdean press reported.

International traffic grew by 6.2 percent, whilst domestic traffic fell 15.2 percent. Tourism was the driving force behind international traffic at the archipelago’s airport, particularly to São Vicente (+25.5 percent), Sal (+11.6 percent), Santiago (+2.4 percent) and Boa Vista (+0.2 percent).

Sal Airport dealt with 612,100 passengers (+2.1 percent), of which 448,000 were international (+11.6 percent) and 164,000 domestic passengers, and was the only airport to see an overall rise in 2013, which was partly due to a rise in hotel capacity on the island.

Praia Airport dealt with 469,400 passengers (-5.5 percent), of which 225,300 were international (+2.4 percent) and 244,100 domestic passengers (-11.8 percent), and Sao Vicente Airport had a total of 204,000 passengers, of which 52,300 were international (+25.5 percent) and 151,700 domestic (-9.9 percent).

TAP – Air Portugal was the airline responsible for the biggest amount of international traffic to and from Sal (70,000 passengers) followed by ThomsonFly (68,200) and TuiFly (58,600). For Praia airport TACV provided the most international passengers (110,400), followed by TAP – Air Portugal (68,400) and Royal Air Maroc (17,800).

Domestic air transport contracted overall by 30.8 percent, and by over 40 percent to Boa Vista and Maio islands. (macauhub)