Breaking News

Author Archives: Jorge Masot

Volotea chose Asturias for the first base in Spain Standard

Boeing 717-200 Volotea Airlines EI-EXI by russavia / Wikimedia Commons

On October 27 we informed that Volotea would open up to 5 bases in Spain. The first one was expected for the north of the country, either in Bilbao, Santander, Vigo or Asturias. Last week Carlos Muñoz, CEO of Volotea,  confirmed to ElComercio.es that Volotea chose Asturias for the first base in Spain. The low cost airline will start to base its aircrafts there in May. Nevertheless, they will offer flights during Christmas this year – on the 19, 23, 26 and 30 of December – to Palma de Mallorca. On April 3 they will start operations with 2 weekly flights to Valencia. After this first destination, they…

Castellón airport is already operational Standard

Castellón airport Terminal by Sanbec / Wikimedia Commons.

As anticipated in this blog, Castellón airport was expected to start operations yesterday. And so they did. In a piece published by 20Minutos, they informed that the final permit was received from AESA  – the Spanish air safety agency – on Wednesday. Thus, Castellón airport is already operational and, in fact, yesterday the first flight landed there. It was a helicopter with two passengers on board. They flew from a nearby airfield, 10 minutes long to the brand new airport. Apparently, they read in the press that the airport was starting operations, so “we filed the flight plan, we got it approved…

EasyJet: “Growth in Spain is focused on the Canaries and the Balearics” Standard

Easyjet A319 at Lanzarote airport by Andy Mitchell / Wikimedia Commons

EasyJet has left behind the passenger loss in the Spanish airports suffered as a consequence of the Madrid base closure at the end of 2012. The British carrier had a passenger gain of 6% this summer with regard to 2013. They are confident that they will end the year with an increase of 2.5%. According to the information published by CincoDías, Javier Gándara – director of easyJet in Spain and Portugal – said “this year we will grow to reach 12.3 million passengers compared to the 12 million that we transported in 2013”. He added that “growth in Spain is totally…

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…

A new Zaragoza based start-up to offer Rome, Munich and Alicante Standard

Zaragoza airport terminal by Juan50300 - Flickr

According to Heraldo.es, two pilots from Zaragoza, supported by investors in the same city, have set up an airline to operate schedule flights, both domestic and international, from Zaragoza airport. The start of operations would be in Easter. The target is to recover the connections with Rome and Alicante which Ryanair used to operate. Also, they would be thinking about Germany, although in this case they would fly to Munich instead. In order to cover these routes they would already have two aircrafts with over 140 seats. These aircrafts seem to have been already ordered to a European leasing company. At first,…

African Airlines considering stops in the Canaries for their US-bound flights Standard

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 by BriYYZ - Flickr

Casa Africa is a Spanish public organization aimed at promoting relationships between Africa, Europe and Spain. During the last months, they have held meetings with two of the main African airlines: Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways. LaProvincia.es informed that the target of those meetings was to open new markets with the centre and south of their continent. During the conversations, Luis Padrón – Director of Casa Africa – offered the possibility of using the airports of the Canary Islands as a stop for their North America-bound flights. Especially, focused on the flights to the US in the case that the…

Ryanair offered 165,000 less seats in Alicante in summer Standard

Ryanair aircraft landing / Flickr - Leoncio J

Last month, Aena informed  that Alicante airport increased traffic by 2.5% between January and September 2014 with regard to the same period of 2013. This is significant by itself, but it is even more important if we consider that Ryanair, the first operator in the airport, reduced their offer in the summer from 2.373 to 2.208 million seats. That makes 165,000 less seats, which is a decrease in the offer by 7%. Still, Ryanair offered more than twice the capacity of the second operator in Alicante: easyJet. In Summer 14, Ryanair offered availability for 2.20 million people from Alicante, serving 47 destinations in 15…

Castellón airport to start operations on December 11 Standard

The Castellón Airport Web Site is still under construction

Next December 11 SNC-Lavalin, the Castellón airport manager, will receive the official authorisation to start operations. The information was published this morning at elPeriodicoMediterraneo.com. In the meantime, they have undertaken initiatives to get clients. Among them, they have launched their brand new web site, www.aeropuerto-castellon.com, which is still under construction, where they offer some information. The image of this post is a screenshot of the airport’s new website. It highlights that this is “a new airport for Valencia region”. Moreover, on the left side of the screen, there are three messages in English about the advantages of the province which has “more…

Vueling bases a second A320 in Palma and increases availability by 67% Standard

Vueling A320 in Dubrovnik by Victor – Flickr

Starting on October 26, Vueling bases their second Airbus 320 in Palma with which they have increased their offer by 67%. In particular, they have increased from 372,000 seats in Winter 2013, to 625,000 seats in the current winter 2014 season. Also, they boosted the number of destinations from 8 to 14. These figures can be checked with the Flight Consulting customised airport statistics, which Winter 2014 data was just updated last week. Preferente.com informed on Friday that Álex Cruz, CEO of the  IAG member airline, visited Palma de Mallorca and said that “the main target is to attract more leisure…

Aena’s IPO is postponed at least until February 2015 Standard

Aena logos at Barcelona airport / Lali Masriera

Yesterday, the Spanish Government decided to postpone the Aena’s IPO which was expected for November, 12. The reason behind this is that there was a “formal defect” in choosing the auditor for that process; there was not a public tender. This auditor is supposed to be responsible to ensure that the company accounts are in order before being listed on the Spanish stock exchange. Yesterday, ElDiario.es informed that, last week, the Government’s board should have approved the Aena’s IPO for a 28% of the company to go public. Afterwards, the Spanish Agency for market regulation – CNMV – was supposed to authorise the brochure….