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Monthly Archives: May 2014

The TCO Regulation effective as from today Standard

EASA logo

The Commission Regulation (EU) 452/2014, so-called TCO (Third Country Operator) Regulation, has entered into force today.The TCO Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 6th May 2014 to be effective on 26th May.From now on and during the next six months, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is accepting from non-EU operators that intend to fly to EU territory, the formal applications for a TCO safety authorization that will be valid for the entire European Union. The TCO will be a precondition for obtaining the operating permit in each Member State, which will require a separate procedure.We will…

European Commission criticizes the opacity on Aena’s charges Standard

Madrid airport Terminal 4

Spanish Airports are not transparent enough with regard to airport charges.This is the main conclusion extracted from a report published on Monday by the European Commission about the implementation of the airport charges policy.The report also estates that Aena do not discuss with airlines the changes applied in this area, so they do not comply with the regulation.The Law in question, which came into force in 2011, requires airports to discuss regularly with airlines about the airport charges, particularly when they are going to be modified. They must also inform about the runways and terminal costs taken into account to…

EasyJet finalising a plan to open routes in Spain in 2015 Standard

Easyjet takeoff in Madrid airport / Javier Pedreira

The Spanish airports are increasing passengers in AprilAena published data for the April operations and confirmed the good trend so far in 2014. Only in April, the Spanish airports gained passengers by 9.3% with regard to April 2013. Comparing figures between January and April, the Spanish airports increased passengers by 4.1% so far this year.It is worth noting that Madrid increased passengers by 7.5% in April, experiencing an aggregate growth of 2.5%; Barcelona keeps the good numbers increasing by 10.8% in April (7.5% between January and April); Málaga met the expectations we had anticipated and grew by 14.4% in April (accumulating 9.5%); Alicante is…

New satellite navigation system available for landings at the Spanish airports Standard

Málaga ATC tower during the works

Last week Aena announced a new satellite navigation system is available for landings at the Spanish airports through a press release which translation follows: The GBAS system is already available at one Spanish airport Aena is worldwide leader in starting new technologies and introduces operations based on satellite navigation 05 May 2014 As from today, Aena offer the possibility of landing at a Spanish airport using a modern satellite navigation system which suppose a significant step with regard to safety, cost savings and effectiveness for the air transport users. This is the satellite navigation system named GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation…

Murcia-Corvera to start operations this year Standard

Jetair at Murcia-San Javier airport / Joaquin Vanschoren

The story of Murcia-Corvera airport looks like the never ending story but at last someone mentioned dates for the airport to start operations. We had learned that Sacyr and the Government of Murcia had resumed talks in December for Aeromur – owned by Sacyr – to get the airport’s concession. Five months later, there has been no news about this. In the meantime, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, president of the Autonomous Region for the last 19 years, in charge of such conversations, resigned to go to the European elections in the list of his political party (Partido Popular).The day before yesterday, VozPopuli informed that Alberto Garre – new…

Barcelona to start collecting the new green tax in July Standard

Barcelona expected to start collecting the new green tax in July

Green tax: Following with the new green tax in Barcelona airport for the commercial flights that we had anticipated, please see below further detail: The law is expected to come into force in July 2014. Therefore, the green tax will have to be paid from then onwards. Taxpayers are airlines or flight operators departing from Barcelona airport. Special flights such as emergency landings or humanitarian flights are exempted from this green tax. Position flights are not considered as commercial flights and hence are exempted too. This green tax is to be paid as from the 1st of January of the year after…

The Minister confirms they are freezing charges in 2015 Standard

New Barcelona airport terminal

We informed yesterday that Aena would soften their charge increases or even freeze them despite the agreement reached in 2013. Today, the Spanish Minister of Development has announced the charges will be definitely frozen in 2015.Thus, Aena published this morning a press release which we have translated as follows: Pastor announces the airport charges will be frozen for 2015 and extends the incentives   Proposes a cero increase instead of the expected 4.5% The savings achieved thanks to the cost reduction plan in the last two years, together with the traffic increase make this possible Aena forgoes income by 151 million Euros…

Aena to soften the charge increase or even to freeze them Standard

Iberia's plane Terminal 4

AENA started in February the consultation process to set the charges for 2015, as established by the agreement signed on 23rd May 2013 between Aena Aeropuertos and the Airline Associations.As agreed, the maximum charge increase for 2015 was set at CPI plus three points. With regard to 2016, 2017 and 2018 a maximum charge increase of CPI plus four points was fixed.However, according to the information from EuropaPress this morning – based on sources from ACETA – during the meetings held so far both parties agreed that the positive traffic evolution during the months of January (2.5%) and February (3.1%) lead to expect traffic…