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Tag Archives: Barcelona

Catalan NOx tax collection to commence Charges,Regulations

EasyJet above Barcelona by Victor - flickr

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.

Norwegian will operate seven new routes between the Peninsula and the Canary Islands Airlines,Airports

Norwegian Air Shuttle, Barcelona by Fotero - Flickr

An article in Expansión details how the low cost airline Norwegian will operate seven new routes between the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands beginning in October. Starting the 25th of October the company will fly to Gran Canaria and Tenerife Norte from Madrid. On the 26th of October they will begin flights to Gran Canaria and Tenerife Norte from Barcelona and the next day begin flights to Fuerteventura. They will also fly out of Malaga to Tenerife Norte starting the 26th October and to Gran Canaria starting the 30th of October. These route additions will lead to the incorporation…

Globalia to begin indefinite strikes starting in July Airports,Handling

Aeromexico Plane in Madrid by May LM - flickr

According to information published on the rtve website, there will soon be new strikes in Spain. Groundforce, the subsidiary handling company of Globalia, will begin indefinite strikes starting on July 4th. The strike will affect the following seven Spanish airports: Barcelona-El Prat, Bilbao, Madrid-Barajas, Gran Canaria, Seville, Tenerife Norte and Tenerife Sur. There are various major airlines that will be inconvenienced by the handling strike including Aeroflot, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Etihad Airways, Korean Air, Saudia, Air France-KLM, Alitalia, Lot and Lufthansa. The strike is the result of the inability to come to an agreement over the third collective…

New base for EasyJet in Barcelona Airlines,Airports

EasyJet above Barcelona by Victor - flickr

Last week ABC.es reported on the opening of a new base for EasyJet at the Barcelona El Prat airport. This is the British low cost’s second attempt at establishing a base in Spain after their first try in Madrid, which they later pulled out of. The director general of EasyJet in Spain, Javier Gándara, said that Barcelona’s case is very distinct from that of Madrid. He mentioned that Barcelona “is a market that the company knows very well, since it is the non-base airport that we fly to the most”. EasyJet will be using Barcelona as a base starting in…

Groundforce unions call a six day strike in Barcelona Handling

Groundforce equipment seen from an airplane at Barcelona airport by Yasunari Goto - Flickr

Just when we are expecting the outcome of the Handling licenses  any day now, we found an article in LaVanguardia informing that the Groundforce Union UGT has called a six day long strike during the month of May. Groundforce is the handling division of Globalia and is the main groundhandling company that provides services at the Barcelona airport. Bearing in mind the current ground handling map in the Spanish airports, Groundforce is the second largest operator after Iberia Handling. The Groundforce Unions have called stops for the days 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29 of May. They aim to protest against the…

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

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…

Qatar Airways to fly Barcelona – Latin America in agreement with Iberia Airlines,Airports

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 Airports,FC Tools

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…

Barcelona airport capacity to increase by 9% Airports,FC Tools

Air Canada Boeing 767-300ER taxiing at El Prat Airport / Wikimedia Commons - Russavia

The Spanish slot coordinator, AECFA, announced that Barcelona airport capacity is increasing by 9% with effect from the next summer season. This increase may result as significant as the  Palma Airport capacity increase that we have already explained. While Madrid airport lost passengers by 0.4%, 9.0% and 12.1% in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively, Barcelona increased traffic by 17.8%, 2.2%, and 0.2%. In 2014 Madrid is recovering and increased traffic by 4.1% between January and September. However, Barcelona, which did not lose traffic at all in the previous years, keeps gaining passengers in 2014 as well. Barcelona served as much as 6.9% more passengers until September…

Palma Airport Capacity Increase to give more traffic Airports,FC Tools

Can Pastilla, near Palma Airport, Mallorca, Spain, seen from an Easyjet A319 just taken off from Palma Airport on its way to Bristol, England / Arpingstone

The deadline for the summer 2015 slot submissions was yesterday, October 9. All airlines intending to operate in the Spanish airports between March 29 and October 24 2015 were supposed to submit their schedules to AECFA, the new Spanish slot coordinator. Before that, and after the capacity analysis performed by Enaire and Aena, AECFA distributed the new airport capacities for this season. Among other items, it is worth noting the significant Barcelona and Palma airport capacity increases. We will go through the Barcelona airport capacity increase in a separate post. Now, let’s focus on Palma: Palma de Mallorca is one of…