Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport has high strategic value for Iberia and British Airways

This was stated by the country manager in Portugal of the two companies, Manuela Barber, who was received by the Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, on Tuesday morning.

At a meeting that was also attended by the councillor for Tourism and Internationalisation, Catarina Santos Cunha, the head of Iberia and British Airways said that the two airlines intend to intensify the routes they operate from Porto Airport.

Both Iberia and British Airways attribute a strategic importance to the city of Porto, which they include in their respective expansion plans.

The investment of the two airlines is important for Porto, as both fly directly to London's Heathrow airport - while TAP, for example, operates flights to Gatwick.

Heathrow is London's busiest airport, having recorded a total of 195,336 movements in 2021 and surpassed the 19 million passenger barrier. By comparison, Gatwick registered 55,817 movements and 6.2 million passengers in the same year.

According to recent data from NAV Portugal, Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport has been recovering air traffic to values close to those of the pre-pandemic period.