During 2023, the international context has been marked by the War in Ukraine, the slowdown in the global economic recovery, the global energy crisis, and the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. All of them events have impacted the global economy and have had an impact on our sector.
Despite this, in the last year, the closing of the traffic and passenger demand data of our Societies is positive, both on our highways and on the railways.
Thus, the performance on our highways has remained consistent globally, exceeding pre-pandemic traffic levels by 5%, highlighting a positive performance compared to 2022.
The most significant increase in traffic compared to 2022 has been registered on our highways: Beira Interior (9.2%), Pocahontas Parkway (8.5%), Transmontana (6.4%), and Ruta 27 (6.2%). More generally, our highways in Europe have experienced a growth of 5% compared to the previous year, while a slight decrease of 2% has been recorded on LATAM toll roads.
As for our rail assets, they have seen a notable 19% increase in passenger numbers compared to the previous year. The most significant growth in demand has been registered in Metro de Sevilla, with a rise of 26% compared to 2022 data, reaching its historical demand record with 20.4M passengers, followed by Tranvía de Parla, with an increase of 24.1%, transporting 6.3M passengers and Metro Barajas, with a growth of 21.8% and approaching 2M passengers in 2023.