In 2022, postal traffic decreased by 4.2% compared to 2021, reaching 563 million items. The latest dynamics are influenced by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a significant drop in traffic. In 2022, the pandemic is estimated to have caused a 7.8% decrease in traffic, which is less severe than in 2021 (in which traffic was estimated to have decreased by 8.1% due to the effect of COVID 19).
Revenue from legally authorised providers of postal services amounted to around EUR 709 million, 0.6% less than in 2021. This decrease was due to the evolution of revenues from letter mail, direct mail and parcels, which fell by 0.1%, 2.4% and 1.2%, respectively. Revenues from editorial mail increased by 0.8%.
Average revenue per item increased compared to the previous year (+3.8%), as has been the case since 2018. This year, the increase is mainly due to the growth in revenue per item of letter mail (+6.1%), which was influenced, among other factors, by price increases applied by CTT on 7 March 2022.
The impact of the pandemic on postal traffic was still felt in 2022. However, with the gradual lifting of movement restrictions throughout 2021, postal traffic seems to have started to recover from the shock caused by the pandemic, with a lower decrease than during the period of movement restrictions.
According to the type of item, letter mail and editorial mail traffic fell by 5.8% and 4.6% respectively, while direct mail and parcel traffic increased by 4.1% and 1.7% respectively.
In 2022, letter mail accounted for 72.8% of postal traffic, while editorial mail and direct mail represented 7.3% and 7.4%, respectively. The weight of parcels in total traffic was 12.5%, 0.7 percentage points (p.p.) more than in 2021. In terms of revenue, the relative weight of parcels was 42.9%, 0.3 percentage points less than in the previous year.
Incoming international traffic decreased by 12.2% compared to the previous year.
Postal services comprised within the scope of the universal service (US) accounted for approximately 80.0% of traffic and 50.2% of revenues.
US traffic fell by 5.2%, while its weight in total traffic decreased by 0.9 p.p. compared to 2021. US revenues decreased by 0.7% and their weight as a whole decreased by 0.1 p.p.
The CTT group held a share of approximately 85.1% of postal traffic, 0.1 p.p. less than in 2021. The CTT group's share of traffic subject to US limits was around 90.4%.4%, up 0.7 p.p. on the previous year. On the other hand, the CTT group’s share of parcels reached 47.6% (-1.8 p.p. than in the previous year).
In 2022, around 14.5 thousand people were employed in the operation of postal services, 2.3% fewer than in 2021. This decrease was mainly due to the evolution of the number of employees of the CTT group (-4.0%). At the end of the period, the CTT group accounted for 71.1% of the total number of employees (-1.3 p.p. compared with the previous year). In the opposite direction, the number of employees of other service providers increased by 2.3%.
The number of access points increased (+8.7%), while the number of distribution centres decreased (-3.5%).
The increase in the number of vehicles in 2022 (695 vehicles) brought the fleet to 8600 vehicles, the highest level since ANACOM started collecting this information (2002).
The number of CTT post stations decreased by 0.2% compared to the previous year, which corresponds to the closure of one post station and interrupts the growth trend that started in 2019, while the number of post offices increased by 0.9%.
Consult the statistical report:
- Postal services - 2022 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1742464
