Executive Summary
Postal traffic in Portugal decreased by 8.6%
In the 1st quarter of 2024 (1Q2024), postal traffic totalled 129 million letters, 8.6% less than in the same quarter last year.
Postal traffic consisted of approximately 74.5% letter mail, 7.4% editorial mail and 4.1% direct mail. Parcels accounted for 14.0% of total traffic, 1.0 percentage point (p.p.) more than in the 1st quarter of 2023.
Compared to the same period last year, direct mail, letter mail and editorial mail declined by 30.2%, 8.6% and 4.6% respectively, while parcels declined by 1.6%.
Average revenue per item increased by 11.2%
Average revenue per item increased compared with the same quarter last year (+11.2%), continuing the growth trend that began in 2018. This quarter’s increase is mainly due to the growth in letter mail revenue per item (+3.1%), influenced by the price increases promoted by CTT on 1 March 2023 and 1 February 2024, and the increase in outbound international traffic related to the parliamentary elections on 10 March.
Universal service accounted for 82% of traffic and 54% of revenue
Universal service (US) postal services accounted for 82.0% of traffic and 53.6% of revenue. Compared to the 1st quarter of 2023, US traffic decreased by 8.4% and its weight in the total traffic increased by 0.2 p.p., while US revenues increased by 7.2% and its weight in the total increased by 2.8 p.p.
Provider shares
The CTT group had a share of around 82.5% of postal traffic, 1.8 p.p. less than in the 1st quarter of 2023. The CTT group had a share of around 89.1% of the US traffic, 1.4 p.p. less than in the in the same quarter last year. On the other hand, the CTT group’s share of parcels amounted to 44.9% (-2.6 p.p. compared to the 1st quarter of 2023).
Number of employees up by 2.1%
In the 1st quarter of 2024, there were around 15 thousand employees involved in the operation of postal services, 2.1% more than in 1Q2023. The number of employees of the CTT Group remained stable, while the number of employees of other operators increased by 7.4%. At the end of the period, the share of CTT Group employees reached 69.6% of the total (-1.5 p.p. compared to the same quarter last year).
Increase in access points and distribution centres
The number of access points (7.8%) and distribution centres (0.2%) increased compared to the same quarter last year.
The number of CTT post offices remained the same compared to the same quarter last year, while the number of post branches increased by 0.3%, which represents an increase of six post branches compared to the 1st quarter of 2023.
