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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…

Aena awarded the ramp handling licenses for its 43 airports Handling

A view from door 2L of the left wing of Iberia Airbus A340-600 EC-JOH upon arrival at Madrid Barajas Airport by Matt Hintsa - Flickr

Yesterday evening Aena announced they have awarded the ramp handling licenses for their 43 airports. In November, Aena received 167 bids for its 19 major airports. Beforehand, in March, they received 10 bids for the ramp handling licenses in the 22 Spanish airports with less than a million passengers per year within the first phase of the handling tender. Now, they have awarded all the licenses together, which will be in effect for the next seven years. With the new licenses Aena offers more competitive ground handling solutions to airlines, adapting their pricing structure to the particular needs. In terms and…

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…

The current ground handling map in the Spanish airports Handling

Iberia's A340 serviced by Iberia Handling at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. By Entropía - Flickr.

Once the bids received by Aena for the ramp handling at the Spanish airports were announced, AgentTravel.es published an interesting article about the current distribution of the ramp handling licenses in Spain. According to their information, the ground handling services in the Spanish airports represent a 830 million Euro business. Of this amount, 540 million are related specifically to ramp handling services. This amount is currently spread among Iberia, Groundforce, Swissport, Acciona, Atlántica, Clece, Lesma-Ryanair, EAT and Menzies. Iberia Until the new licenses are confirmed by Aena in the spring of 2015, the current ground handling map in the Spanish…

Aena receives 167 handling bids for its 19 major airports Airports,Handling

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,…

Ryanair terminates Swissport contract to do self handling Airlines,Handling

Swissport staff performing ramp handling to a Ryanair plane in Madrid airport / Flickr-ÁlvaroBa

After over seven years Ryanair terminates Swissport contract, both for passengers and ramp handling, in Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. The reason behind this is that Aena finally accepted the Ryanair request to perform self ramp handling.Ramp handling is limited in the Spanish airportsThe ramp handling in the Spanish airports is not open and can be performed only by those agents who have a license. In fact, the second phase for the handling tender is currently under process. It is precisely this phase which will determine the new companies entitled to offer ramp handling services to airlines at Madrid airport.Apart from the ramp…

Handling tender second phase in Spanish airports Handling

Iberia's plane Terminal 4

Following with the renovation process of Handling licenses in the Spanish airports, AENA has published a press release with the terms and conditions  for the Handling tender second phase. This public tender deals with ramp handling licenses for third parties. The Handling tender second phase includes 19 airports with more than one million passengers per year. These airports will have two or three handling agents. Additionally to this, it is bid the ramp license for one only handling agent for both El Hierro and La Gomera airports. The new licenses will be in force for seven years. In this handling tender second phase, the…

10 bids have been placed for the Handling licenses in 22 Spanish airports Handling,Regulations

A380 receiving ground handling services at Frankfurtt

On March, 20 Aena launched a press release informing on the bids that had been placed for the ramp handling licenses to be tendered in the Spanish airports as per the Terms and Conditions that had been anticipated.This is our translation into English:20 March 2014 10 bids have been placed for the public tender called by Aena to award the licenses for 22 airports of the net. In particular, these bids are referred to the first phase of the tender on ground handling to third parties for 22 airports which serve less than one million passengers a year and have an only handling agent….

Air Europa to grow by 20% in 2014 Airlines,Handling

Air Europa, A330 landing at Madrid airport / José Luis Celada Euba

Air Europa’s chairman, Juan José Hidalgo, attended a meeting on Wednesday. He confirmed they will be starting operations in the new skyTeam airline’s hub on May, 15 according to Europapress. Thanks to the agreement reached with Aena, Air Europa will concentrate all operations in terminals 1, 2 and 3 of Madrid airport. Mainly in T3 and T2 where they will operate domestic and Schengen flights, while they will use T1 for the long haul. The new hub will also allow Air Europa to boost connections between Madrid and Latin America, the Caribean or North America. Also, they expect to open new…

Menzies: the main rival to Iberia in the Handling tender Handling

Menzies equipment at the platform

Menzies aim to place bids for every airport of the Aena’s net and present themselves as the main foreign rival to Iberia in the handling tender, expected to have finished by the end of this year.According to the information published by ElEconomista.es, Menzies Aviation’s chairman, Craig Smyth confirmed they placed bids for the whole airport net, paying special attention to the five biggest airports: Madrid, Barcelona, Palma, Málaga, and Alicante. All five to have 3 licenses each. Juan Lorenzo Vidal – general director for the Menzies Aviation Spanish branch – explained they will go to the tender on their own and not in…