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Vueling to open a base in Brussels Standard

Vueling A320 EC-HHA in Valencia airport by Rob Wilson / Shutterstock.com

Vueling will have a 180-seater A320 with his new base in Brussels, as from May 1, where they have scheduled seven new routes i.e. Rome, Venice,Lisbon, Porto, Santiago de Compostela, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca. Yesterday, the airline announced they expect to increase their seat availability in Brussels by 108% regarding last summer. In particular, they will connect the Belgian city with Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Málaga apart from the other new seven destinations. With this, it will be the first time for Vueling to connect two cities out of Spain. Thanks to their base in Brussels, they will fly directly to Rome, Venice, Porto and Lisbon. All four routes will be served year round. Rome…

More difficulties for Iberia if the Government bring Norwegian to T4 Standard

Norwegian aircraft by Markus Mainka / shutterstock.com

Conflict of interest between the Aena privatisation and the Iberia’s growth plans.Going on with the negotiations of Aena with Norwegian and considering that the Madrid Airport Terminal 4 (T4) is currently dedicated to the Oneworld airline alliance, it might be a new problem for Iberia if the low cost airline based their operation at this terminal too.The Iberia’s board recently said that the short and medium haul became a problem for the airline. The arrival of Norwegian to T4 in Madrid airport, which under-utilisation is a great concern for the Government, would contribute to worsen the situation of the Spanish airline.Industry sources…

Airlines request consensus before the Aena privatisation Standard

TUI aircraft in Lanzarote airport / Fotolia

On October 21 the Government’s Consulting Council of Privatisation—CCP—published a report which confirmed the fact that they are now open to privatise Aena by 60% as we had anticipated.ActualidadAerospacial.com informed that the Council of Ministers shall approve a Royal Decree to authorise the privatisation process of Aena Aeropuertos. Aena Aeropuertos to be split in three partsThe first part would be a stable nucleus with a group of leading shareholders made up of 3 to 5 investors, to purchase shares by between 20% and 30% of the Capital Stock. Each investor would have an individual share between 5% and 10%. Amongst other requirements, these investors would…

Final data on Summer 2013 for the Airport Stats Standard

Aiirport Statistics by Flight Consulting-Summer 2014-Summer 2013-Winter 2013-Winter 2014

Summer 2013: Once the summer 2013 season is over we have collected the up-to-date information of every airport for that period and it is all available at our customized airport statistic online tool.For those who have an upgraded account you can get the information you wish at any time. If you find any difficulty please do not hesitate and let us know.Also, be informed that we have fixed a bug there was when a query showed one day of the week only. In these cases, an insignificant amount of flights for other days was added to the report too.New users can…

0.9% Increase in 2014 for airport charges Standard

0.9% increase in 2014 The advanced Spanish Cost Price Index (CPI) for October has been published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). “The estimated inflation of the CPI in October 2013 is -0.1%”.Consequently, considering what we had explained in our post Budget 2014 – Aena charges, an overall 0.9% increase (CPI + 1%) is to be applied to the airport fees at all the Spanish airports.For information on the expected increases for 2015 and beyond, you can read our post AENA clarifies Airport fee increases for the next five yearsThis 0.9% increase shall be effective on 1 March 2014.For any kind of…

What’s up with Iberia? Standard

Iberia's new logo.

It looks like they are changing strategies in view of the spectacular passenger loss they are suffering.  Comparing Jan-Aug 2012 v Jan-Aug 2013 Iberia lost over 5.1 million passengers (36.8%). What’s up with Iberia?Also, in the displayed ranking note that Air Europa overtook Iberia as the third Spanish operator in passengers.We already informed about the third strategic plan they are working on and about the new brand they have just presented this month.To this respect, liligo.es explained last Monday that the new livery, which might recall British Airways, would be an aim of modernisation to fight the bad numbers. The first A330 bearing the new logo might have been…

Eight of the Ryanair clauses are declared void by a Madrid court Standard

Some ryanair clauses are void

A Consumer and User Organization—OCU—took legal action against Ryanair in 2011 and, yesterday, a Madrid court confirmed that eight of the Ryanair clauses must be removed because they are unfair. They are no longer allowed to force users to file lawsuits in Ireland. Passengers are entitled to use identifications which are valid in Spain such as the family record book. Paying 40 Euros for printing the boarding card has been considered to be excessive. Ryanair shall accept cash payments and not only credit cards. The clause that entitled them to deny boarding to a passenger or its luggage without reasonable…

Union calls off Swissport strike; talks on new Handling agreement to be resumed Standard

  • By – 24 October, 2013
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Yesterday, the Comisiones Obreras—CC.OO.—union and the handling company reached an agreement to call off the Swissport strike, the longest one in the Spanish aviation history with 73 days long. CC.OO. explained that negotiations on the Third Handling Collective Agreement will be resumed on 20 November with the aim of working on a “future for the Swissport workers”. In fact, CC.OO. said they will not accept some of the working conditions they had with the joint ventures where “the lower wages are frozen, the duration of the working day is amongst the longest and over 75% of the employment are temporary jobs”.Thus,…

Subsidies on valley days in the Canaries to remain in 2014 Standard

The Minister of Fomento, Ana Pastor, informed yesterday, in continuation with the press release launched by Aena, that the airlines flying to/from the Canary Islands in the forthcoming winter season will increase the seat availability by 15%. In particular, the number of seats offered on international flights rises as high as 22%.For further information and analysis on the Spanish Airports, let us remind you that you can access our Airport Stat Tool at any moment.During her speech in the Senate she said in the Canary Islands “everything goes reasonably well” and the international traffic is growing. The islands will take benefit from the…

Andalusia’s Government seeks mediation for the Swissport Spain strike Standard

The Government of the Andalusia Autonomous Region has asked Aena to mediate disputes on the indefinite Swissport strike called by Swissport Spain.Amongst the Spanish Airports operated by Swissport Spain, Málaga, Almería and Jerez correspond to Andalusia.A representative from the Government, Mr Antonio Jesús Roldán, said he wants to avoid the extension in time of the Swissport strike because it is affecting to tourism. Therefore, they will make contact with Aena and Swissport for them “to try and find a solution as soon as possible and an agreement can be reached which allows the stops are called off.”   Source: DiaroDeSevilla.es