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Tag Archives: Canaries

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…

Volotea to open up to 5 bases in Spain Airlines

Volotea's B-717 take-off from Seville airport / Wikimedia Commons - Curimedia

Volotea will open their first base in Spain in 2015. It will be in the north of Spain, either in Bilbao, Santander, Vigo or Asturias. They are planing to establish up to five bases among the Spanish airports. The next ones would be opened in the eastern region of the Iberian Peninsula, Andalusia, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. Currently, Volotea‘s aircrafts spend the night at Venice, Palermo, Nantes or Bordeaux. Also Strasbourg is expected to be added to this list soon. A year has passed since we announced that Volotea was working to open a base in Asturias. According to Preferente.com, the Volotea’s strategy for the future…

Aena new shareholders to acquire 21% of the company Regulations

Aena offices in Madrid / Luis García - Wikimedia Commons

As we have been informing, another step has been taken in the Aena privatisation process. Last Tuesday they announced the names of the Aena new shareholders who are creating the stable nucleus. Aena had 21% of the company reserved for three main shareholders which made up a big private stable nucleus in the public entity. Thus, the new shareholders are Corporación Financiera Alba (subsidiary of Banca March), Ferrovial and the Children’s  Investment Fund Management (TCI). Corporación Financiera Alba will be the largest private shareholder with 8% of the shares. Then, both Ferrovial and TCI will get 6.5% each. ElMundo.es informed that November 12 is the date when…

Foreign tourism all-time high in Spain Airports

Considering all means of transport, Spain received 45.4 million foreign tourists between January and August 2014. This is 7.3% over the same period last year. Therefore, it means a new foreign tourism all-time high after the one achieved last year. According to Frontur – Spanish Institute of tourist studies – 9.1 million tourists came to Spain in August. This is 8.8% over August 2013. It is worth noting the French tourism, which contribution to the traffic increase was most significant: the number of French people who came to Spain by whatever means of transport increased in 171,000 in August. All the…

Bird Blue Air Line the new startup in the Canaries Startups

People waiting for departure at Tenerife South airport terminal / Jeremy Page - Flickr

There are at least three projects for airlines based in the Canary Islands. You may remember our post Summarizing the ongoing Spanish startups, published in October 2013. Out of those 4 projects, Evelop is already operating. With regard to the projects for the Canary Islands, Preferente.com recalled those two to announce a new possible startup: Bird Blue Air Line. According to this information, none of this project has started so far. Mainly due to the entrepreneurs lack of confidence. Bird Blue Air Line is the last proposal on the Tenerife’s Government desk. Sources from the project said the airline would cost approx…

Aena will go public in early November Regulations

Rafael Catlá and Ana Pastor, on the right-hand side of the image, in 2012

Last week we informed that Aena will go public in November. Yesterday, Rafael Catalá confirmed this point during a conference at Executive Forum España. As you may remember, Rafael Catalá is State Secretary for Infrastructure and, therefore, chairman of ENAIRE. ENAIRE, is the State company which is currently 100% responsible of Aena SA – formerly Aena Aeropuertos. Thus, ENAIRE is about to start the privatisation process of Aena SA by 49%. El Confidencial, informed yesterday about this conference. Hence Aena will start trading on the stock exchange in early November. As expected, they will launch 28% of their share capital for private investors through an…

Gran Canaria airport works: finished the second phase Airports

Vehicles parked in front of a Gran Canaria airport’s entrance / Flickr - Håkan Dahlström

In September we informed that the first phase of the Gran Canaria airport works had been concluded. Last week Aena published another press release: The second phase is now finished too. The third and last phase is left.This way, the improved terminal started working on July 15th. It has 42,000 more square meters. On the first floor a new check-in area has been built. This new area has 18 counters which could increase up to 34 in the future. Also, there is a new security control zone with two double filters, a boarding lounge and shops. The intermediate floor has another boarding lounge, mainly…

Canary Islands new routes tendered by the Region Airports,Regulations

Tenerife South airport terminal / Flickr - rromer

In March 2013, the president of the Autonomous Region announced a Flight Development Fund would be created to boost Canary Islands new routes. EuropaPress published the information when this blog did not exist yet.This morning, Preferente.com informs that the first six Canary Islands new routes have been put out for tender. Therefore, airlines can place bids to cover these destinations: Tenerife – New York. Gran Canaria – Rome. La Gomera – London. La Palma – Leipzig. Lanzarote – Lyon. Fuerteventura – Paris. In the forthcoming months the government of the Region is expected to put out for tender other Canary Islands new routes.Ricardo Fernández…

DORA approved through a Royal Decree Airports,Charges,Regulations

Aena’s electric cars at Madrid airport / Flickr-Ministerio de Fomento

Last Saturday, the expected Royal Decree was published in the Spanish official gazette (BOE). In a 172-page document with different changes to the regulations currently in force, the Aena privatisation and tariff freeze has been confirmed. At the same time, the Document for Airport Regulation – DORA – has been defined. Several Spanish media inform about some of the changes specified in this Royal Decree. Above all, they deal with the tariff freeze and the fact that the Government will keep 51% of the company. Javier Gándara about the new regulation It is noteworthy the article by Javier Gándara—General Director for easyJet—in an op-ed piece at CincoDías….

Aena Privatisation: Competition disagrees, Ryanair interested Airports,Regulations

Ryanair and Iberia in competition

As soon as the Aena privatisation was definitely confirmed by the Minister many thoughts, interpretations and declarations have appeared in the Spanish media. Since this is something that we have been following very closely, we have extracted some pieces of news which may be relevant to the subject.The National Competition Commission disagreesFirst of all, ElMundo.es published a thorough article informing that the Spanish Competition Commission is not happy with the privatisation as it has been planned by the Government. In their view, it will not benefit the industry to keep the airport net monopoly. For Competition it would be better to separate Aena in…