On October 21, Spain removed all the remaining Covid-19 admission requirements for all visitors, regardless of nationality.

The era of health paperwork and COVID-19 tests required by airlines prior to boarding a flight is coming to an end.

Spain has joined the other European countries in eliminating all entry criteria for air travellers, regardless of their country of origin.

With Spain’s recent addition, Europe is again open to travellers from all around the world.

Before the new regulations went into effect, Spain was the only European country that required testing of non-EU arriving passengers who had not been vaccinated.

Spain removed the obligation to show health paperwork to border officials over a month ago, and today’s shift follows suit.

However, face masks are still mandatory on public transport in Spain. To that end, passengers bound for Spain should remember to pack sufficient face covering.

Today’s developments are welcome news for Spain, where tourism significantly contributes to GDP. In fact, 125 million people travelled to Spain in 2019.

This year’s number of tourists will roughly match the numbers seen in 2019, even though COVID-19 travel rules are still in effect. However, if restrictions on participation are eliminated, that number might rise much further.

Since 2015, annual increases in total capacity to Spain have been followed by annual decreases. This trend continued until the COVID-19 pandemic dropped by 59%.

There will be a significant rebound in the aviation industry in Spain in 2022, with overall capacity growing by 42% compared to 2021.

Capacity is still down 8% from the pre-pandemic year; therefore, it will not recover in 2022.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Official Airline Guide (OAG) said that Ryanair had the most seat deployment to Spain, at 27 million.

The Spanish low-cost airline Vueling, a subsidiary of the IAG Group, followed the Irish LCC. The third-placed airline was Spain’s Iberia, which offered 12 million seats.

Two low-cost carriers (LCCs) will continue to dominate the Spanish airline market in 2022.

Iberia, the national airline of Spain, has the most available seats (in terms of ASKs. Available Seat per Kilometre) departing from Madrid Barajas Airport.

With 6 billion ASKs being deployed from its primary hub in 2022, Iberia will be far ahead of the competition, with Barcelona airport coming in second with 611 million ASKs. With an expected 104 million ASKs in 2022, A Coruna will be Iberia’s third busiest airport in Spain.

By 2022, London Gatwick Airport (LGW) will have 6.5 billion ASKs, making it the busiest airport in continental Europe, followed by Manchester Airport (MAN) (6.2 billion ASKs).

It’s anticipated that the removal of COVID-19 entry requirements will affect the volume of traffic between the United Kingdom and Spain, as the former were the first two European destinations from which visitors were still subject to limitations while travelling to Spain.

In 2022, airports in Bogota (BOG), Mexico City (MEX), and New York (JFK) offer the most seats outside of Europe, with a total of 626 thousand.