After the completion of Aena’s Consultation Process with the airlines and their representatives, the Board of Directors has approved the airport prices variation for 2018 proposed by Aena. Aena’s proposal is based on the balance between the costs and revenues of each of the airport tariffs keeping a yearly overall index of 2.22%. The final proposal was submitted to the DGAC (Civil Aviation Authority) on 31st July for its approval and it determinates the following variations on the actual prices for the main airport tariffs: Landing -0.5% Transit -2.0% Meteo +2.8% Security -3.0% Parking +5.4% Passenger fee -2.9% PMR…
Category Archives: Regulations
Aena will earn 40 million by eliminating incentives in 2017
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…
Catalan NOx tax collection to commence
On 18th January the Catalan Authorities published that the payment procedure for the NOx tax had been approved through Law 12/2014 on 10th October. We had already anticipated the hightlights of this Law that came into force with effect 1st January 2015. Payment must be arranged between 1st and 20th February through the Generalitat de Cataluña website. We have also learnt that IATA is opposed to this tax and they are taking actions against the Catalan Government. A full explanation regarding its position can be found here.
Congress approves 2016 General Budget including Aena’s price reduction
Yesterday, the 2016 General Budget process was finalized at the Parliament with the approval of the amendments which were previously included at the Senate. These amendments will be incorporated into the final text which will be published in the Spanish Official Gazette (BOE) on January, 1 2016. As expected, the parliament approved the 1.9% reduction in all the airport charges. This reduction will be effective as of March, 1 2016. Furthermore, the discount in passenger and security charges for passengers connecting flights has increased from 35% to 40%. This will also be effective on March, 1. For this purpose, Aena considers that passengers…
Aena to apply 1.9% reduction in charges as suggested by the CNMC
In spite of the fact that neither Aena nor the Government have made any official announcement yet, this morning, ElConfidencial confirmed that Aena has decided to apply a 1.9% reduction in charges. “Not only will Aena apply a 1.9% reduction in airport charges as Competition told them to do, but they will reinstate the incentives on new routes and increase of passengers as well”. The decision on the incentives has been made by Aena in light of the positive evolution of air traffic, expected to finish 2015 with a 5% increase in passengers. These incentives were removed by Aena in the original General Budget…
ATC Strike scheduled for October 3 is called off
The main air traffic controllers’ union, USCA, has called off the strike that had been scheduled for this Saturday October 3. Yesterday, they announced on their web site that an agreement with Enaire had been reached. In spite of the fact that “this agreement does not meet all the objectives” pursued by USCA, they understand that Enaire has resumed negotiations. Thus they find it appropriate to explore an attempt of improving the relationship with Enaire. This attempt will not make them renounce the other claims. Especially in the case of the controller who was dismissed in Santiago de Compostela airport…
Negotiations between Enaire and controllers failed
Yesterday, the air traffic controllers and Enaire had a meeting to discuss the new ATC walkouts that have been scheduled for tomorrow and next Saturday, October 3. However, the parties did not reach an agreement. Previously, the Ministry of Development (Fomento) had published a press release announcing minimum services of 80% for this strike. These are the same levels they had fixed in the previous strike called by the controllers in July. After the meeting, both Enaire and the main representative of the air traffic controllers – USCA – published a press release respectively. On the one hand, Enaire said that…
Aena will be able to avoid the price reduction if the budgets are amended
Yesterday we informed that an Aena airport charges decrease had been confirmed through the State Budget Project. However, it looks like it is not so easy and that confirmation might not be a fact. Yesterday evening ElPais published a comprehensive article reporting that the Spanish National High Court refused all the appeals against Competition (CNMC) regarding Aena airport costs. Their decision was based on the fact that Aena’s prices are a responsibility of the parliament, thus court appeals don’t make sense. Aena’s intention was that Justice prevent the CNMC from forcing them to lower prices but that didn’t work and that’s why the Budgets…
Confirmed: 1.9% reduction in Aena airport charges for 2016
Yesterday, the General State Budgets for 2016 were presented by the Government in the Congress. The breaking news is that it already contains the 1.9% reduction in Aena airport charges that the CNMC asked them to introduce. Looking up Article 72, paragraph One (page 48) in the budget project, it reads: “Effective on March, 1 2016 and with indefinite validity, the amounts of the airport charges decrease by 1.9% regarding the charges in force on February, 29 2016”. Also, the discount will apply to passengers with connecting flights increasing from 35% to 40%. With this, the Government accepts the request of the CNMC. However, Aena presented an appeal…
The CNMC tells Aena to introduce a 1.9% decrease in airport charges
According to a publication in El Confidencial, the CNMC (the National Market and Competition Commission) has notified Aena of the definitive resolution regarding airport charges for 2016. Their decision imposes a 1.9% decrease that the Ministry of Development (Fomento) should incorporate into its General Budget which will be approved on Friday. Moreover, this scale will serve as a reference for the tariff freezing which should be applied during the following ten years, between 2017 and 2026. This middle ground between the tariff freezing solicited by Aena and the 3.5% decrease recommended by the CNMC seems to be the appropriate solution…