Category Archives: Airlines

Airport tariffs in Spain expected for 2018 Standard

Barcelona by Camilo Rueda López

After the completion of Aena’s Consultation Process with the airlines and their representatives,  the Board of Directors has approved the airport prices variation for 2018 proposed by Aena. Aena’s proposal is based on the balance between the costs and revenues of each of the airport tariffs keeping a yearly overall index of 2.22%. The final proposal was submitted to the DGAC (Civil Aviation Authority) on 31st July for its approval and it determinates the following variations on the actual prices for the main airport tariffs:   Landing -0.5% Transit -2.0% Meteo +2.8% Security -3.0% Parking +5.4% Passenger fee -2.9% PMR…

Aena will earn 40 million by eliminating incentives in 2017 Standard

Madrid airport Terminal 4 / shutterstock

Today El Confidencial  published that Aena has decided to eliminate the passenger growth incentives for those airports that exceed three million passengers per year. In spite of the change, a new incentive for long-haul routes has been introduced and in the meantime the valley days in the Canaries remain the same. The selective removal of incentives that were being implemented in previous years will compensate the reduction of Aena’s income resulting from a decrease of charges effective as of 1st March. Through this measure, Aena will earn around 40 million euros. This amount is even larger than the sum of expected…

Air Europa Express: Globalia’s low cost airline expected for March 2016 Standard

Air Europa's Embraer 195LR with the new livery by Martin J. Gallego - Flickr

Aeronova is a small Spanish airline based in Valencia that was acquired by Globalia – Air Europa’s owner – at the beginning of this month. This was reported by LasProvincias on November, 8. On Tuesday, Preferente.com announced that Globalia will now convert this airline into Air Europa Express in order to operate their regional flights. The information was relayed by Álvaro Middelmann, former Air Berlin director for Spain and now consultant for Air Europa. The airline is expected to start operations around March 2016. Its home bases will be Madrid and Palma. Despite being a part of Globalia, the new airline will be independent from Air Europa….

Air Berlin to close Palma hub in the first quarter of 2016 Standard

Air Berlin 737-700 in Palma de Mallorca by Colin Cooke Photo - Flickr

Last Tuesday, Air Berlin’s board approved the cancellation of the whole domestic flight network that they operate in Spain. This means all connections between Palma and other Spanish destination will no longer operate. Hence, the German airline will close their hub between Spain and Europe. The information was revealed by ElMundo on Friday. According to their sources the first destinations where the airline is to stop operating will be Ibiza, Alicante, Seville and Valencia. These routes will have been cancelled by the end of January 2016. The remainder of routes, i.e. Málaga, Jerez, Bilbao and Faro (Portugal), will be cancelled at the end…

UK airlines bet on Menorca, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote for summer 2016 Standard

Thomas Cook Airlines taking off in Lanzarote airport by jBarcena - Flickr.

A representative from Menorca’s government, María Sellarés, confirmed the expected traffic increase of the UK airlines in the Balearic Island for the summer of 2016. During the WTM 2015, Jet2.com, Monarch and easyJet announced they have increased the number of seats offered for Menorca for the next summer season. According to Sellarés, the improvements for the island are a consequence of “the strength of the sterling pound, the good trend of our local economy and the increased confidence of consumers. That is not to forget the instability of some Mediterranean destinations that are competitors”. Hence, Hosteltur reported that Jet2.com is committed to increase traffic to…

Trade Unions call a handling strike in September in five Spanish airports Standard

Ryanair flight-Low Cost airlines lost market

The main trade unions in Spain, CCOO, UGT and USO have called Menzies Aviation Ibérica workers to a partial handling strike in Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, Málaga and Palma de Mallorca airports. Worker’s representatives have announced that the strike has been called after a “further delay” from the company in the negotiation of the collective agreement. It has now taken over a year and a half. The informations was reported by Expansion. Trade unions said Menzies proposed postponing these negotiations “without any intention to solve any of the points raised” in the platform presented by the social part. The airlines affected by the strikes…

Plus Ultra finally receives AOC Standard

Plus Ultra EC-MDG by José Luis Celada Euba - flickr

According to an article in preferente.com, five years after the initialization of the project Plus Ultra has finally received its Air Operator Certificate (AOC). This news means that Plus Ultra now has all the necessary permissions to get off the ground. AESA gave them an “A license” which permits them to, “exploit air services for passengers, freight and/or post, in exchange for earnings and/or rent payment.” The wait has not been easy for the company, especially once they purchased their first plane which must be kept indoors and maintained. They had been aiming to start operation in the first quarter…

Norwegian will operate seven new routes between the Peninsula and the Canary Islands Standard

Norwegian Air Shuttle, Barcelona by Fotero - Flickr

An article in Expansión details how the low cost airline Norwegian will operate seven new routes between the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands beginning in October. Starting the 25th of October the company will fly to Gran Canaria and Tenerife Norte from Madrid. On the 26th of October they will begin flights to Gran Canaria and Tenerife Norte from Barcelona and the next day begin flights to Fuerteventura. They will also fly out of Malaga to Tenerife Norte starting the 26th October and to Gran Canaria starting the 30th of October. These route additions will lead to the incorporation…

New base for EasyJet in Barcelona Standard

EasyJet above Barcelona by Victor - flickr

Last week ABC.es reported on the opening of a new base for EasyJet at the Barcelona El Prat airport. This is the British low cost’s second attempt at establishing a base in Spain after their first try in Madrid, which they later pulled out of. The director general of EasyJet in Spain, Javier Gándara, said that Barcelona’s case is very distinct from that of Madrid. He mentioned that Barcelona “is a market that the company knows very well, since it is the non-base airport that we fly to the most”. EasyJet will be using Barcelona as a base starting in…

Unprecedented lobby group formed by Air France KLM, Easyjet, IAG, Lufthansa and Ryanair Standard

Violeta Bulc- European Commissioner for Transport by epp group - flickr

On June 17th, ElEconomista reported on the formation of an unprecedented lobby group made up of some the biggest names in European commercial aviation. Air France KLM, Easyjet, IAG, Lufthansa and Ryanair have formed a lobby to defend their interests before the drafting of new European air transport policy. The lobby is expected to put pressure on the European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, on 80% of the subjects to be covered in this new policy. The lobby has its priorities clear, one of the most important being the reduction of fees in the main European airports. European airport fees…