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Barcelona to start collecting the new green tax in July Charges,Regulations

Barcelona expected to start collecting the new green tax in July

Green tax: Following with the new green tax in Barcelona airport for the commercial flights that we had anticipated, please see below further detail: The law is expected to come into force in July 2014. Therefore, the green tax will have to be paid from then onwards. Taxpayers are airlines or flight operators departing from Barcelona airport. Special flights such as emergency landings or humanitarian flights are exempted from this green tax. Position flights are not considered as commercial flights and hence are exempted too. This green tax is to be paid as from the 1st of January of the year after…

Ryanair is planning to grow in Madrid, to shrink in Barcelona Airlines

Strait of Gibraltar view from a Ryanair’s plane / flickr.com

Last month we informed that Vueling was about to catch Ryanair as the largest operator in Spain. Now, latest data collected from Aena confirm that, with the month of March over, Vueling has become the first operator in the Spanish airports as a matter of fact. Between January and March they have served 4.60 million passengers, ahead of Ryanair which transported 4,57 million people within the same period. However, aiming to keep their position, they announced some changes with regard to their operations in Spain:First of all, according to ABC.es Ryanair will connect Madrid with six new destinations, i.e. Bremen,Catania, Cologne, Eindhoven, Fes and Warsow, all to start in…

New environmental tax in Barcelona airport Airports,Regulations

Barcelona Airport Terminal

The Government of Catalonia approved last Tuesday the creation of an environmental tax that will be charged in Barcelona to commercial flights. The Catalan Government expects this measure be definitely adopted before the next summer. It is expected that this rate be charged to all commercial flights departing from Barcelona airport and they presume to collect about 3.9 million Euros a year.According to the Minister of the Presidency, Mr. Homs, this new tax will not generate an extra cost for passengers since the Law Regulations will prevent airlines charge this new tax to their clients directly.According to travelupdate.com this new tax would increase the amounts…

Vueling to keep an eye on the American destinations Airlines

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

Vueling keep an eye on the American destinations: Vueling’s chairmain Alex Cruz said they are expecting to sign a code share agreement with Qatar Airways in 2014.This will be the first agreement they sign with a non IAG airline. Currently they are already feeding passengers for Iberia and British Airways, and the Qatar’s entry into oneworld has made it easier.However, Cruz said they keep an eye on the merger of US Airways and American Airlines and the opportunities that this will bring to Barcelona airport. This merger creates a hub for them with four American destinations: New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Charlotte. “Barcelona might keep gaining new destinations like Chicago or…

Airlines operating in Spain fear a new “green tax” Airports,Charges,Regulations

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Catalonia will pioneer the initiative of imposing a new tax on the CO2 emissions. This green tax has been included in the Regional Budgets for 2014, and according to the Catalan Government estimates, it will bring revenue of 3.6 million Euros in the next year.This is not the first time that the Government of Catalonia tries this and, in fact, other countries in Europe like Germany, France and UK have similar “green” charges, where the airline industry is taxed for its environmental impact.The news has alarmed airlines associations (Aceta, ALA and Aeca). They consider that this initiative may produce a…

Vueling to open a base in Brussels Airlines

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…

A new strategic plan for Iberia to alleviate the adverse circumstances Airlines

CapitalMadrid.com published yesterday a very interesting analysis on the Madrid airport current situation, where they highlight the decrease of easyJet and Ryanair. Ryanair reduced passengers by 32% and easyJet by 40%, being 14% the overall decrease for the airport between January and August.Iberia—the main operator—and Iberia Express together lost passengers by 19%. Struggling to overcome the current circumstances they keep facing problems with pilots and are working on a new medium-term strategic plan for Iberia.IAG aims to reduce costs at Iberia to make it competitive, above all in the long haul. As for the short and medium haul they will use Iberia Express…

Airlines programme more than 81 million seats in winter Airlines

Aena increase

According to the press release published by AENA, the airline programs have increased a 3.7% on next winter 2013 season comparing with W12, with an offer of more than 81 million seats.The prevision means an increase by airports of: 1.9% in MAD with more than 21 million seats offered , BCN +5% with more than 16 million seats, AGP +10.5% with more than 4 million seats and ALC +13.4% more than 3.5 million seats offered.There is a significant increase in the seats offered in the Canary Airports; TFS +16.3% with more than 5 million, TFN +6.3% with more than 2 million, LPA +13% with…

Spanish Airport Traffic evolution – August 2013 Airports

Aena has published the statistics related to the Spanish Airports between January and August 2013. You can find a copy of the spreadsheet here. It shows detail on the traffic evolution at each airport. The file has two tabs at the bottom left corner: one with the figures for the month of August and the other one with overall data between January and August. Each tab shows three tables with detail on passengers, operations and cargo respectively.It is worth noting that Barcelona is in August, for the first time, the airport leading the ranking for passengers in Spain, after all the summer…

Handling licenses in Spain Handling

In continuation with the tender for the handling licenses in Spain, please see below the following two pieces of news which might be of your interest:Menzies aims to become one of the 3 main handling operators in SpainEuropa Press informs that Menzies will place bids to become one of the three main handling operators in Spain.They aim to get the ramp handling licences for, at least, one of the 3 groups in which the 24 smaller airports have been spread. Each group would have an overall passenger volume by 3 million and they will be the first invitation to tender. Afterwards, there…