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 losses due to the 2.2% reduction of airport charges this year.
The new incentive scheme is clearly selective with the specific purpose of providing “an additional stimulus to boost the demand” and it will affect fifteen airports which include Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Alicante and Palma. These fifteen airports make up 93.2% of the total traffic registered by Aena’s network in 2016.
The evolution of air traffic has exceeded Aena’s most optimistic forecasts for the next five years, meaning that airlines do not need any additional stimulus to increase what they understand as a “natural demand’, however the incentives are not part of airport charges regulated by the Government and may be reinstated by Aena in the future if airlines guarantee a drop in their tickets prices.
