Santiago airport rebounds in June but still trails 2025 by 10.5%
Santiago's Rosalía de Castro aeropuerto handled 277,649 passengers in June 2026—a sharp rebound from May's runway-closure low of 31,594—but still 10.5% below June 2025. New international routes could not offset Ryanair's withdrawn base, leaving Galicia's busiest airport lagging despite reopening.
The June surge matters because it tests whether renovated infrastructure and fresh long-haul links can reverse a regional aviation slump reshaping airline rankings across northwest Spain. Aena figures cited by regional outlets show momentum returning, but not enough to match last year's volumes.
Key Takeaways
- Santiago airport moved 277,649 passengers in June, up sharply from May but 10.5% below June 2025.
- Galicia's three airports fell 17.5% in H1 2026, with 466,359 fewer travellers than a year earlier.
- Vueling overtook Ryanair as Galicia's top carrier; Ryanair slid to fourth with 147,814 H1 passengers.
- New routes to New York, Amsterdam, Cork, and Marrakech launched after the 35-day runway closure ended 27 May.
- A Coruña and Vigo posted only modest June declines of 1.5% and 0.5% respectively.
What happened at Santiago airport in June?
The Aeropuerto de Santiago-Rosalía de Castro reopened on 27 May after closing from 23 April for runway works, keeping the terminal nearly idle through much of that period. In June alone, the airport processed 277,649 travellers—nearly nine times May's 31,594 figure.
Operators added international capacity after the works, including United Airlines to New York, Aer Lingus to Cork, KLM to Amsterdam, and Vueling to Marrakech, according to Diario Gallego. Yet the monthly total still trailed June 2025 by 10.5%, underscoring how deeply Ryanair's October 2025 base closure continues to bite.
Why is Galicia's overall airport traffic still falling?
Zoom out and the picture darkens. Galicia's three airports combined welcomed 479,430 passengers in June—139,522 more than in May but 6.8% fewer than June 2025. From January through June, the network logged 2,203,812 travellers, down 17.5% year on year.
Santiago drives most of the pain. Excluding May, when the aeropuerto was closed for works, its first-half passenger count fell roughly 27%, reports Galiciae. Analysts cite Ryanair's pullback, competition from Porto, and growing high-speed rail demand on the Madrid corridor as persistent headwinds.
How are airlines reshaping the region's skies?
The carrier map has flipped. Vueling consolidated as Galicia's leading airline with 969,814 passengers in the first half, including about 585,000 through Santiago alone, per Economía Digital. Ryanair dropped to fourth with 147,814 passengers, all at Lavacolla, behind Air Europa and Iberia.
That reshuffle mirrors wider shifts in how regions rebuild connectivity after budget-carrier retrenchment—topics we track in our Future Tech & AI Wonders coverage of transport innovation. A Coruña bucked the trend with an 18.9% first-half rise, led by Vueling's 72.4% growth there, while Vigo held nearly flat in June.
For travellers, June's rebound is real but partial. Santiago's aeropuerto is flying again, yet Galicia remains short nearly half a million passengers versus the opening half of 2025—and the summer season will show whether new long-haul links can close that gap.