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Author Archives: Jorge Masot

Ryanair opens a base in Berlin and starts 6 Spanish destinations Standard

Ryanair's EI-EBW in Tenerife North, to operate FR5279 TFN-MAD by Dura-Ace, Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, Ryanair announced they will have a new base in Berlin starting on October 27. From there, they will connect with six Spanish cities: Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Palma and Valencia. The new base in Germany was presented during the International Tourism Fair ITB. Apart from these cities, Ryanair will also fly to Athens, Bari, Bologna, Bratislava, Brussels, Glasgow, Palermo, Riga, Rome and Venice from this new base. According the information published in Preferente, the airline announced they will operate 191 weekly flights. These services will mean an investment of 500 million dollars with the use of 5 aircrafts. The airline’s target would be to…

Swissport strike called off after deal on collective agreement Standard

An easyJet aircraft being serviced by Swissport / by Jon Whitton - Flickr

Last Friday, CCOO (Union Confederation of Workers Committee) called off the Swissport strike which had been scheduled for several days during the months of March and April. Expansion.com confirmed that the employees and the company reached a deal on the collective agreement. Until now, the conversations had been in a deadlock. Over 2,000 workers had been called to strike at the airports of Barcelona, Alicante, Almería, Málaga, Jerez, Fuerteventura and the cargo terminal of Madrid. Talks on the collective agreement began more than 2 years ago and now a deal to be signed has finally been made. This is the first collective agreement that…

San Javier awarded as the best small airport in Europe Standard

Murcia-San Javier airport by Joaquin Vanschoren - Flickr

The Airports Council International awarded San Javier airport a prize as the best European airport with fewer than 2 million passengers per year. The information was published in LaVerdad, where they interviewed the Murcia-San Javier airport director, Mr. Pedro Vicente Gallut. This distinction has been received just as Aena, the Government of Spain and the local Government are in talks for the closure of San Javier to open Corvera. It is surprising that San Javier continues to lose passengers and airlines despite the excellence of their services. Also, it is difficult to understand why Alicante keeps gaining travelers in the same area in…

Swissport strike called in the Spanish airports Standard

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

According to the information published in several Spanish sources, CCOO (Union Confederation of Workers Committee) has called a strike for the Swissport Spain workers in March and April. CCOO, the main union of the ground handling company, informed that this strike has been called due to the fact that the negotiations on the collective agreement are in a deadlock. Over 2,000 employees are called to strike at the airports of Barcelona, Alicante, Almería, Málaga, Jerez, Fuerteventura and Madrid (in the case of the latter, only for the cargo terminal). A piece published by TeInteresa informs that the items currently blocking the negotiations…

Menorca seats up 12% in summer 2015 Standard

Ciutadella de Menorca by Pablo Fernández

Another step forward has been taken in the slot coordination process for the Summer 2015 season. During the month of January the airlines were requested to cancel all the slots that they had booked but did not intend to operate in summer 2015 in the Spanish airports. IATA establishes January 15 for such purpose and the European regulation takes January 31 into consideration for the calculation of the corresponding historical rights for the schedules at the airports. Thus, as soon as these deadlines had passed, Aecfa started to deal with the slot requests that they had received for the ad-hoc flights. In terms of slot…

Aena Unions call 27 days of strike before its partial privatisation Standard

Madrid airport Terminal 4

After a meeting held yesterday morning with the representatives from the airport manager, the Spanish Unions CCOO and USO have decided to go ahead with the strike that had been called for 27 days of stops in Aena.  Thus, ElEconomista informed that the first stop will take place on Wednesday, February 11 which coincides with the planned date for the Aena’s IPO. This first stop has been scheduled to be carried out between 10:00 and 13:00 local time. CCOO and USO claim that Aena is not complying with the collective agreement. For instance, they are not complying with the minimum staff of 8,000…

Madrid runway closure postponed by Courts Standard

Runway 36L at Terminal 4, Madrid Barajas airport by Mario Rubio García - Flickr

On December 9, ElMundo informed that the High Court of Madrid asked Aena to cease the noise affecting the residential complex of Ciudad Santo Domingo due to the aircrafts landing at Barajas airport. In particular, Aena was requested to reduce operations by 30% the flights allocated by Aena in 2004 (about 20,730 approaches). This reduction was supposed to be effective no later than two months after the order’s notification. The 18R runway of Madrid airport was the one affected by this decision. This has nothing to do with the fact that the runway will be closed for construction for almost a month. However, last Wednesday ElEconomista published a piece informing…

Victoria International Airways: a start-up for Palma Standard

Screenshot of the Victoria International Airways web site

“Victoria International Airways is a new airline based in Spain that offers Full Charter Service to tour operators and travel agencies…”. This is the presentation of the airline in their LinkedIn page, which also informs that their fleet is composed of Airbus 320s with a 180 seat cabin configuration. This morning, Preferente.com published an article about this company. According to the information in it, they will not be able to start for the moment due to lack of an aircraft. The airline is being created by several entrepreneurs from Málaga and Mallorca. The project was born more than a year ago and has people…

La Seu d’Urgell: yet another commercial airport in Spain Standard

Air Andorra's web site screenshot

LaVanguardia informed that La Seu d’Urgell airport is no longer an airfield, as of yesterday it has become a commercial airport and hence tourist, passenger, cargo or private flights may operate there from now on. This is happening five years after Alguaire started operations on January 17, 2010 also in the province of Lleida. Both airports are owned by the Government of Catalonia. Albert Batalla – mayor of Seu d’Urgell – said that both airports are compatible with each other because they are different: Alguaire is for big aircrafts and La Seu d’Urgell airport is for smaller planes, with up to forty or fifty…

Air Horizont is the name for the new Zaragoza based airline Standard

Zaragoza airport terminal by Juan50300 - Flickr

The new Zaragoza based start-up we were expecting has already got a name. According to the information provided by FranjaDigital.com, Air Horizont informed Aena that they intend to operate two weekly frequencies with three new destinations: Munich, Rome and Seville. This would be the first part of their plan. Later, they may incorporate up to four more routes from Zaragoza i.e. Málaga, Alicante, Gran Canaria and Bologna. Some of these routes were already operational in the past, but eventually disappeared. With regard to, Málaga and Alicante, they would be started again to compete with the high speed train services (AVE). Apart from the new routes…