The number of passengers taking internal flights in Spain dropped 21% in the first two months of 2009 compared with the same period the previous year, whilst the high-speed trains saw 9.4% increase in passengers over the same period.

Although their was still a downward trend in February, the 19% drop was lower than the 23.2% drop registered in January according to data published today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In February, whilst 2.7 million people used air travel, over 1.6 million took the high-speed train (AVE), an increase of 4.9% compared to last year, but considerably lower than the 14.4% increase registered in January.
 
Despite the increase in AVE passengers, the regular rail network had 10.8% fewer passengers compared with last year, with suburban trains losing the greatest proportion of passengers with a 12.4% drop in the first two months of 2009.

The number of people using the bus network has also dropped by 2.1% so far this year.

Extremadura with a 9.4% drop and the Comunidad Valenciana with an 8.3% drop are the two autonomous communities where urban transport (metro & bus) passenger figures have been most affected.