OVER half of foreign passengers travelling to Spain used low-cost airlines this summer.

A total of 6.4 million people came to Spain from abroad in July alone, of which 51.9 per cent

used budget flight firms.

Surprisingly, in light of the recession, this has fallen by 1.4 per cent on last year’s figures.

But traveller numbers as a whole have been down this year, with the 31.7 million so far seen in

2009 being a fall of 10.4 per cent on 2008.

Budget airlines rocketed in popularity in July, with nine in ten seats occupied compared to eight-and-a-half in ten in the previous month.

The favourites continue to be easyJet, Air Berlin and Ryanair.

Brits represented the largest group of foreigners travelling to Spain, with an annual total so far of 5.7 million, of which 1.2 million were seen in July.

Germans followed at 810,000 passengers last month and 3.9 million since the start of the year.

These numbers have fallen since 2008, but French and Belgian holidaymaker figures rose by 0.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.

The most popular destinations for foreign travellers were the Balearic Islands, Catalunya,

Andalucía, the Comunidad Valenciana, the Canary Islands, and the Comunidad de Madrid, respectively.

Only tourist numbers in the Balearics and Madrid rose, whilst the other regions saw a lower influx this year.