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Category Archives: Airports

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…

Murcia Region: Another airport for Aena in the Mediterranean Standard

La manga del Mar Menor, in Murcia by Enrique Freire / Wikimedia Commons

Last week Vozpopuli announced that the government of the Autonomous Community of Murcia has given Sacyr a one week period to obtain a bank guarantee covering the loses for the first years of operation. Failure to obtain the guarantee would result in the definitive loss of the grant, which would be handed over to a new entity. That entity could be AENA. The president of the Autonomous Community, Alberto Garre has already announced that it would participate in the tender. Garre had promised in May that Corvera would open in October or November. However, the date was delayed until the…

The longest runway at Barajas will close for construction for almost a month in 2015 Standard

Runway at Barajas airport Madrid by Oz-Flickr

On Monday the news source ABC informed that the Madrid airport will begin one of the biggest renovation projects undertaken in the last decade. Its runway 18R/36L, the longest in the airport and even in Spain, will be completely rebuilt between the 15th of January and the 15th of October. This intervention will force the closure of the runway dedicated to the takeoff and landing of transatlantic flights 23 days after Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter), specifically between the 17th of April and the 10th of May. The stoppage of activity could extend four more days to…

Aena receives 167 handling bids for its 19 major airports Standard

Iberia's plane Terminal 4

The airport list at the bottom of this post has been updated: 19 November, 2014 According to ABC, yesterday the period for presenting offers for the second phase of the renovation of handling licenses in the 19 major airports in the Aena network ended. The companies Iberia, Globalia, Acciona and Menzies are the confirmed participants. Five of the 19 major airports (Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Málaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante-Elche y Palma de Mallorca) expect to have three agents and 15 licenses are up for bid. The other 14 airports (Asturias, Bilbao, Fuerteventura, Girona, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Menorca,Tenerife Sur, Tenerife Norte,…

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…

Qatar Airways to fly Barcelona – Latin America in agreement with Iberia Standard

Boeing B773 Qatar In FC Barcelona At London Heathrow by David Osborn - Flickr

According to the information published by LaVanguardia, Qatar Airways intends to fly between Barcelona and Latin America. During the Aviation Partnership Summit, Akbar Al Baker – CEO of the airline – confirmed that they would do that only in the case that Iberia and the other Oneworld airlines were in agreement. Qatar Airways is a member of the Oneworld alliance since October 2013. Even though Iberia is leading the Latin American market in Europe, if they had capacity constraints in certain destinations, Qatar Airways would see a business opportunity for them. Al Baker takes into consideration Barcelona only, since Madrid is Iberia’s hub…

Winter 2014 season seats up 5% in the Spanish airports Standard

Some screen shots of the Flight Consulting Customised Airport Statistic Tool

Last Friday Aena announced, through a press release, that airlines have scheduled 41.7 million seats for departures from the Spanish airports during the winter 2014 season, which has just started on October 26 and will last until March 28. This amount is 5% over the one scheduled at the beginning of winter 2013. The number of expected departure flights has also increased, in this case, by 4.7%: there are over 264,000 planned take-offs from the Spanish airports. The airports which offer has increased most are the three main Spanish airports: The good trend for Madrid airport is confirmed with 11.4 million seats…