Category Archives: Handling

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…

Iberia Handling unions call a strike in Ibiza Standard

Aircraft at the Ibiza airport's platform by Jordi Sanchez Teruel - Flickr

Iberia Handling unions have called a strike in Ibiza to be held on July 30 and 31 and on August 4 and 8. Walkouts have been programmed from 12:00 to 14:00 and from 2100 to 23:00 local time. Diario de Ibiza reports today that the strike might become indefinite if an agreement is not reached during the meeting that has been scheduled today in Madrid. Also, workers have scheduled an assembly for this Thursday July 28 to deal with all the news that may have arisen during the last days. The main demand of the unions is that the current collective bargaining agreement…

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…

Globalia to begin indefinite strikes starting in July Standard

Aeromexico Plane in Madrid by May LM - flickr

According to information published on the rtve website, there will soon be new strikes in Spain. Groundforce, the subsidiary handling company of Globalia, will begin indefinite strikes starting on July 4th. The strike will affect the following seven Spanish airports: Barcelona-El Prat, Bilbao, Madrid-Barajas, Gran Canaria, Seville, Tenerife Norte and Tenerife Sur. There are various major airlines that will be inconvenienced by the handling strike including Aeroflot, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Etihad Airways, Korean Air, Saudia, Air France-KLM, Alitalia, Lot and Lufthansa. The strike is the result of the inability to come to an agreement over the third collective…

Strikes called by air traffic controllers and Ryanair handling staff Standard

Barcelona airport ATC tower / Victor

“Spain’s air traffic controllers’ union (USCA) has called partial strikes for June 8, 10, 12, and 14 to protest the national airport authority’s decision to sanction 61 controllers over a wildcat stoppage that led to the total closure of Spanish air space in December 2010.” This is part of the information which was published in the English version of ElPais yesterday. At the same time, ElConfidencial informed this morning that Ángel Luis Arias Serrano has been appointed Director General of Enaire. Julio Gómez-Pomar continues to be chairman, being Secretary State for Infraestructure which corresponds to the Ministry of Development (Fomento). However, due to heavy workload as such,…

Aena awarded the ramp handling licenses for its 43 airports Standard

A view from door 2L of the left wing of Iberia Airbus A340-600 EC-JOH upon arrival at Madrid Barajas Airport by Matt Hintsa - Flickr

Yesterday evening Aena announced they have awarded the ramp handling licenses for their 43 airports. In November, Aena received 167 bids for its 19 major airports. Beforehand, in March, they received 10 bids for the ramp handling licenses in the 22 Spanish airports with less than a million passengers per year within the first phase of the handling tender. Now, they have awarded all the licenses together, which will be in effect for the next seven years. With the new licenses Aena offers more competitive ground handling solutions to airlines, adapting their pricing structure to the particular needs. In terms and…

Groundforce unions call a six day strike in Barcelona Standard

Groundforce equipment seen from an airplane at Barcelona airport by Yasunari Goto - Flickr

Just when we are expecting the outcome of the Handling licenses  any day now, we found an article in LaVanguardia informing that the Groundforce Union UGT has called a six day long strike during the month of May. Groundforce is the handling division of Globalia and is the main groundhandling company that provides services at the Barcelona airport. Bearing in mind the current ground handling map in the Spanish airports, Groundforce is the second largest operator after Iberia Handling. The Groundforce Unions have called stops for the days 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29 of May. They aim to protest against the…

The current ground handling map in the Spanish airports Standard

Iberia's A340 serviced by Iberia Handling at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. By Entropía - Flickr.

Once the bids received by Aena for the ramp handling at the Spanish airports were announced, AgentTravel.es published an interesting article about the current distribution of the ramp handling licenses in Spain. According to their information, the ground handling services in the Spanish airports represent a 830 million Euro business. Of this amount, 540 million are related specifically to ramp handling services. This amount is currently spread among Iberia, Groundforce, Swissport, Acciona, Atlántica, Clece, Lesma-Ryanair, EAT and Menzies. Iberia Until the new licenses are confirmed by Aena in the spring of 2015, the current ground handling map in the Spanish…

Aena receives 167 handling bids for its 19 major airports Standard

Iberia's plane Terminal 4

The airport list at the bottom of this post has been updated: 19 November, 2014 According to ABC, yesterday the period for presenting offers for the second phase of the renovation of handling licenses in the 19 major airports in the Aena network ended. The companies Iberia, Globalia, Acciona and Menzies are the confirmed participants. Five of the 19 major airports (Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Málaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante-Elche y Palma de Mallorca) expect to have three agents and 15 licenses are up for bid. The other 14 airports (Asturias, Bilbao, Fuerteventura, Girona, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Menorca,Tenerife Sur, Tenerife Norte,…

Ryanair terminates Swissport contract to do self handling Standard

Swissport staff performing ramp handling to a Ryanair plane in Madrid airport / Flickr-ÁlvaroBa

After over seven years Ryanair terminates Swissport contract, both for passengers and ramp handling, in Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. The reason behind this is that Aena finally accepted the Ryanair request to perform self ramp handling.Ramp handling is limited in the Spanish airportsThe ramp handling in the Spanish airports is not open and can be performed only by those agents who have a license. In fact, the second phase for the handling tender is currently under process. It is precisely this phase which will determine the new companies entitled to offer ramp handling services to airlines at Madrid airport.Apart from the ramp…