Aena

Ryanair proposes burying the hatchet with Aena and negotiating the new rates until 2031

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There are many signs that define a toxic relationship. Ryanair and Aena seem to have fully entered into one of them. The Irish company is playing the good cop, bad cop game with the airport manager. But, unlike what usually happens, there is only one player here. One that unfolds and that attacks as soon as it reaches out. What happens? That Ryanair “would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Aena and agree on competitive incentive programs, available to all airlines, that would stimulate traffic.” That is, a hand extended after continued attacks on Aena, the company in charge of managing the vast majority of Spanish airports. There is only one problem, that proposal must be found in the fifth paragraph of a statement that repeats over and over again the position that the airline has taken regarding airport taxes in our country: “Aena’s excessive rates are diverting that traffic towards more competitive airports in other parts of Europe.” What is Ryanair talking about? In its latest publication, Ryanair points to a Aena statement of February 25, 2025 in which the company noted that “passenger traffic at Aena airports in Spain grew by 3.9% in 2025, with 321.6 million passengers.” And not only that, the company assures that in 2026 it will grow another 1.3% to reach around 326 million passengers. But the true origin of the last exchange of statements was found a few days ago. On February 18Aena presented its proposal for the coming years with an average annual increase in airport taxes of 3.8% between 2027 and 2031. The increase will result in an increase of 0.43 euros per passenger, according to Aena. The company assures that these increases are essential to undertake an investment wave of 12,888 million euros with a great boost from the Canarian airports that should receive investments worth 1.8 billion euros. very hard. “The Aena monopoly statement of Wednesday, February 25, is astonishing for its inability to understand how to take advantage of Spain’s airport infrastructure to boost traffic, tourism and employment,” is how the press release that Ryanair has distributed begins to explain its position regarding Aena’s latest communication. And once again, the company focuses on airport taxes in regional enclaves. “Aena’s DORA III proposal (where investments are collected in the coming years) It is exactly what you would expect from a protected monopoly: defending itself, blaming others and ignoring the damage caused by its own pricing policy. With the DORA III proposals, Aena plans to increase airport taxes by 21% without taking inflation into account. “This will be another nail in the coffin of regional connectivity in Spain for the next five years, unless the CNMC and the Government of Spain intervene and reject this failed monopolistic strategy.” an open door. However, the Irish company opens the door to a new negotiation with Aena despite the fact that this company “has closed the door”, in the words of Ryanair. The airline assures that it intends for part of the 300 new aircraft that will arrive in its fleet to be destined for one of the Spanish airports. And the company is once again focusing on smaller airports. In 2025 they carried out a restructuring that has left some of them, such as Valladolid, completely empty. They claim that their traffic has increased by 11% in Morocco, 9% in Italy and 60% in Albania. Despite this, they do not point out that even with their partial withdrawal have increased their presence in Spain by 100,000 places. And although its 0.5% growth is small, it is also misleading. It has moved more passengers than ever in our country and some withdrawals are understood only by commercial agreements that, in reality, are flights subsidized by local entities. Something that Morocco applies but that also have been using some town halls in Spain. Interested. What seems evident is that Spain continues to be one of the main airport markets in Europe. Last year, our country reached a new tourist record: 97 million. And the great objective is to achieve break the barrier of 100 million tourists this same year. Aena is aware that tourism is a powerful weapon when it comes to putting pressure on airlines with annual increases. Maurici Lucena, president of Aena, pointed to a lack of responsibility on the part of the airlines and to acting “in bad faith” when they criticize the increases, in words reported by EFE. For its part, the Association of Airlines (ALA) presses for the CNMC to reduce Aena’s proposal which they call a “high rate” while they have presented a proposal that advocates lowering rates by 4.8%. The gap between both proposals is 4,950 million euros. Photo | Xataka In Xataka |

The fight between Ryanair and Aena has left a trail of victims throughout Spain. But none as serious as Vigo

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This Sunday, January 4, Vigo airport closed its stage as an international terminal with the last Ryanair flight to London-Stansted, which took off at 9:30 p.m. The Peinador airport has thus become the only Galician airfield without connections outside of Spain, a situation that it already experienced between 2019 and 2023 after the first departure of the Irish airline. What does it mean for Vigo. The most populated city in Galicia loses its only air gateway to abroad after almost three years. Since the end of March 2023, the flight to London had returned the airport’s international status, but is now relegated to an exclusively domestic airport with routes to Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Gran Canaria and Tenerife, in addition to some specific flights to Mallorca. A stormy relationship. The divorce between Ryanair and the Vigo Council is consummated with crossed reproaches. The City Council imposed two sanctions on the company in 2025 for an amount greater than 67,000 euros, accusing it of suppressing 16 frequencies during the summer of 2024 and failing to comply with the agreed tourist promotion actions. “They are not serious people,” Mayor Abel Caballero even stated, according to collect Vigo Lighthouse. Although the contract ended in December 2025, Ryanair took advantage of Christmas to maintain the flight for a few more days. The goodbye numbers. Ryanair closes its second stage in Vigo after selling almost 1 million tickets in a decade of operations, according to The Voice of Galicia. In its first period (2016-2019), the airline received 4.4 million euros from the City Council for three years of presence. In this second phase, it received an additional 1.87 million for the three-year period that is now ending. According to account the mid-Atlantic, the route to London moved nearly 45,000 passengers in 2025 alone, its best record in these three years. Galician airports. The situation contrasts with Santiago de Compostela, which maintains twelve international destinations, and A Coruña, with four. Peinador exceeded one million passengers in 2025, although a good part of that traffic is due to Imserso trips, as collect Vigo Lighthouse. In this way, those who want to leave Spain from Vigo by plane will have to depend on other airports. It will be international again. The Vigo terminal will recover international connections in October, although in a timely manner: the Travelmakers agency has scheduled two planes to Egypt, as already happened in 2025 with charter flights to Morocco, as collect the middle. In addition, Aena and the Port Authority agreed to promote the arrival of cruise passengers at the airport in 2026 to reinforce Vigo’s role as a base port. But they are sporadic solutions, not stable routes. The battle for the north. The Peinador case has been a consequence of the pulse between Ryanair and Aena due to airport taxes, which has caused cuts of 80% in Galicia and also affected Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country. Other airlines such as Vueling, Volotea or Aer Lingus are occupying part of the gap left by the Irish in airports such as Santiago, Bilbao or Santander, but the recovery is not the same in all airports. Between the lines. Peinador also enters the list of the nine Spanish airports that operate exclusively in national territory, including Valladolid, Salamanca and Pamplona. For an airfield that in 2017 served eight international destinations and handled 1.5 million passengers in its golden age, the step backwards is significant. It remains to be seen if this status is maintained for long or if the airport will be able to attract new international flights in the future. Cover image | Wolfgang Weiser In Xataka | This is the DGT map to visualize where there are active V-16 beacons in Spain. There is another more useful unofficial map

In the midst of the battle between Ryanair and Aena, there is a Spanish airport that is suffering more than any other: Valladolid

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Villanubla airport has lost 60.7% of its passengers so far in 2025, accumulating only 59,689 travelers between January and September. The figure contrasts greatly with the rest of the airports in Castilla y León, which are growing at double digits, and makes the Valladolid airport the great victim of the fight between the Irish airline and Aena. The trigger of the crisis. Ryanair left Valladolid on March 28 after accuse Aena of applying “excessive rates”. The Irish airline, which had been the main operator of the airport, confirmed in September that I wouldn’t return either during the winter season. Without their presence, the airport has been practically disconnected: in September it transported only 6,037 passengers, 58.5% less than the same month in 2024. A solo drama. While Villanubla collapses, the other three airports in the community they rise strongly. León increases its passengers by 18.6% to 56,925, Salamanca grows by 17.5% to 21,736 and even Burgos, with only 2,413 travelers, achieves a modest increase of 1.4%. The Valladolid airport, which depended largely on the influx of Ryanair, has seen how the fight between this airline and the airport manager has taken a toll on its usual traffic, unlike the rest of the provinces in the community. What’s behind. The conflict between Ryanair and Aena has been going on for years. The Irish company has been around for a long time eliminating seats in many regional airports as a lever to negotiate discounts on airport taxes. Aena, for its part, has maintained a firm position in its pricing policy, also aware that giving in to pressure from Ryanair would set a precedent that would not suit the rest of the airlines. Valladolid has been caught in the middle of this battle. The cascading impact. The 60.7% drop in passengers not only affects the airport, but also hits the entire provincial economy. Fewer travelers means fewer connections for local businesses, less tourism and a greater perception of isolation. The 4,647 operations registered until September represent a 14.1% less than in 2024which means that other airlines have not covered the gap left by Ryanair as has happened at other airports. The only escape route. He return of Vueling This same month of October could mark a turning point, especially taking into account the seven months of operational drought at the airport. However, it remains to be seen if its offer of routes and frequencies will be enough to reverse the collapse. Cover image | Lucas da Costa e Silva In Xataka | Using the WiFi on the train in Spain is the worst. The question is why there is so much difference compared to the rest of Europe

An Andalusian Aena. And seriously

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“Aena should end her monopoly in Spain and head towards a model similar to the British where airports of the same territory compete with each other.” It is easy to guess who those words are. Indeed, its owner is Michael O’Leary but it is more difficult to succeed with the date. Now, Balearic Islands and Andalusia begin to slide that it is perhaps a good idea. They have a proposal: end Aena’s monopoly. Competence. As we said, the previous words are from O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair. But it is not part of its last pressure measure to justify its march of some Spanish airports. These statements already made them in 2017. Obviously, His opinion has not changed since then. What has changed is the position of some voices within Spain, to which we are much less accustomed. These have come from the Balearic Islands and Andalusia who propose a new model: they want to manage their airports and, thus, plant competition to Aena who is the one who carries the singing voice throughout the country. Andalusia. “We are not very happy with how Aena is maintaining our airports. We are thinking whether to make a co -management agreement or enter the shareholding of a company that could develop an Andalusian Aena.” With these words, Arturo Bernal, Tourism Councilor of the Junta de Andalucía, his position regarding Aena’s work in his region to questions from questions from The confidential. Balearics. The position of the Balearic Islands is the same. Marga Prohens, president of the Balearic Islands, has already defended her position with An initiative not law. The intention is that there is a co -management between Aena and the regional government. One of the reasons indicated is that the works that are being carried out at Son Sant Joan are “quite inefficient”, in Prohens’s words. How does Aena work? Aena is the Spanish airport management company. It has so many aerodromes under its umbrella (46 airports and two helipuertos) that right now is the company that manages the most spaces of this type in the world. Its shareholders are 51% public and 49% private since the Law 8/2014 will let private shareholders into the company. Since then, Aena is still in charge of maintaining Spanish airports in the best state and, of course, making them attractive to airlines. Hence, for example, the rates to operate at regional airports are much lower than those in Madrid, Barcelona … or Balearic Islands, whose airfield are San Joan is the third most important in our country. Solidarity. In the article of The confidentialwhat the unions and defenders of the AENA model defend is that the company allows smaller airports to remain open despite the fact that, together, they are deficit for their low volume of flights. With its benefits, Madrid or Barcelona help Santiago de Compostela remain open and, despite Ryanair’s departure, new companies remain attractive to occupy this space. However, they emphasize that 49% private capital is pressing everything possible so that investments in deficit airports is the minimum possible with the aim of maximizing benefits. For CCOO, the ideal solution is simple: 100% public capital. And they emphasize: “Aena worked much better because all the benefits reverted in improvements in the network. The company generated more income to the state of what it needed to invest in airports. Now we have vulture funds in the shareholding.” Compete? What they support from the Balearic Islands and Andalusia is the same as O’Leary: the best model is that airports compete with each other. For the CEO of Ryanair, the ideal is that the airports of the same space fight to offer the most attractive offer to the company. What they want from the autonomous communities is to enter the management so that their airports are more attractive to those of other regions and have more benefits to their coffers. A few days ago, Maurici Lucena, president of Aena, He published a letter Regarding Ryanair’s threats to continue taking flights from the Spanish territory. It defended that Spain has one of the most competitive rates of the European environment, thanks to a very demanding regulation, which, among other factors, induces high operational efficiency of the company. “ On the other hand, the demand for Balearic Islands and Andalusia also coincide the announcement by the government that will invest 12,888 million euros in Spanish airports. Of course, of these investments it has only been pointed out that “9,991 million euros correspond to regulated investments, while the rest will go to unregulated actions (associated with commercial activity)”, without offering more specific details or more specific interventions. Are there airports that are not from Aena? Yes, in total there are four airports in Spain that are not managed by AENA: Castellón, Ciudad Real, Teruel and Lleida. In addition, that of Andorra-La Seu d’Urgell is also managed by Catalonia. The results are disparate. Castellón has not stopped accumulating lost Since it was launched. Its construction was a cost of 158 million euros. Ciudad Real also does not give benefits but, in this case, Its management is completely private. Teruel has specialized in its position as an industrial airfield. A hole has been created on the international map for its spaces of maintenance and repair of aircraft. Lleida is an environment used by airlines for pilot formation. Among other companies, here they operate Air France, Vueling and Volotea. Finally, that of Andorra-La Seu d’Urgell yes operates with commercial flights. However, the sum of both has not reported any year of benefits Since regional reins were taken in 2014. Photo | Pop9000 on Wikimedia In Xataka | Ryanair’s march has left regional airports: 240,000 passengers less and 70% less in one of them

If someone believed that national tourism had entered “crisis” this summer, Aena has something to say: at all

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If Google and Deloitte give in the nail, in a few years Spain will be the great resort of the world. According to Your calculations In 2040 the country will receive around 110 million foreign visitors, even exceeding France or the US. Until then every summer is a fire test for national tourism. This in particular there are voices that already suggest A slowdown in destinations as relevant as Tenerife wave Costa del Sol. There is still a lot of campaign ahead to know if it will be so, but for now AENA’s data show a quite different photo. What suggests His July balance It is a record summer. What happened? That Aena has just published A balance of passengers that are especially interesting for two reasons. The first, because it offers us the ‘photo’ of July, the first strong month of the summer campaign. The second reason is that these figures point to a considerable increase in displacements, which clashes with The voices that over the last weeks They have detected signals of weakening in Spanish tourism, at least In certain regions. Aena’s report does not differentiate between those who move for vacations or other reasons, such as work, studies or to visit relatives. Nor does it distinguish between national and foreign passengers. In any case, another interesting approach provides to take the temperature to the tourism sector in July. 10 main airports July passengers % with respect to 2024 Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas 6,170,130 +0.6% Barcelona-El Prat Jt 5,540,010 +2.9% Palma de Mallorca 4,594,987 -0.1% Malaga-Costa del Sol 2,866,642 +7.8% Alicante-Elche Miguel Hdez. 2.106,991 +5.9% Ibiza 1,446,589 +0.9% Gran Canaria 1,286,184 +6.4% Valencia 1,132,402 +4.2% Tenerife-Sur 1,094,961 +1.4% Lanzarote-César Manrique 798,998 +7.3% Total Aena’s network in Spain 32,765,284 +2.7% What do the data say? That July 2025 was a month of record. The network of terminals managed by AENA on Spanish soil accounted for 32.76 million of travelers. The number of flights amounted to 268,034. They are, respectively, 2.7% and 3.1% more than during the same period of 2024 and mark a milestone in the historical registry of the group. “Passenger and operations figures represent an absolute monthly record, which makes last July the best month in history at the airports of the Aena network in Spain,” concrete The operator. Is there more data? Yes. In the report AENA does not detail why users, their destinations fly or if they are national or foreign travelers, but it does require how traffic has evolved in their airports. At the head in absolute terms, Barajas is located, in Madrid, with 6.17 million travelers in July. The most interesting thing, however, are not the total figures of users, but how they have evolved compared to July 2024, a record year For Spanish tourism. He passenger flow Barajas for example grew 0.6% and Barcelona-the Prat 2.9%. In general, the airports of the country’s main tourist destinations experienced an increase in activity in July. In that of Malaga-Costa del Sol, the flow of travelers shot 7.8%, in Alicante 5.9%, in Ibiza 0.9%, in Gran Canaria 6.4%, in Tenerife South 1.4%and in Tenerife North 8.6%. Of course not everyone grew. ‘Palma’s airfield, where the passenger transfer fell 0.1%, Santiago, who suffered a 12.4%cut, or Santander and Vigo, which scored setbacks of 0.6%and 6.5%, respectively. Are they high data? Yes. Both in fact that some terminals have pulverized their historical maximums. “During the past month there has been an absolute record of passengers at the airports of Barajas, El Prat, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante, Valencia, Bilbao and Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de la Laguna”, They clarify from Aenawhich also specifies that there are 16 airfields that have registered their best July. Why is it important? For several reasons. The main one because in summer a good part of the displacements are by leisure, which gives us another brushstroke to understand how the tourist season marches. The second reason is that Aena’s figures collide in part with others Shared by the hoteliers that suggest a summer with less activity and income than in 2024. The Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol (AEHCOS) I noticed recently That July occupation levels were very similar to those of 2024 (87.82%, 1.16% above last year) but came accompanied by less income: the gross impact per customer fell according to their calculations from 198.61 to 157.18 euros. Facing August, the group expects the average occupation to be 4.57 percentage points lower than that of 2024, so it would stay at 88.32%. Are there more falls? Yes. The one on the Costa del Sol is not the only message that points to a less generous summer campaign than that of 2024. The Tenerife press It echoed These days that the establishments integrated in Ashotel closed Julio with an average occupancy level of 81.97% in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is a high percentage that also improves the forecast of reservations that hoteliers handled in mid -June, but still almost two percentage points below July 2024. In Palma de Mallorca the employer speaks Not so much a fall in the flow of tourists as if of the spending in hospitality. What is the conclusion? Touch wait. Soon the INE will publish another interesting clue to take the temperature of the tourist campaign: its statistics of Hotel situation. At the moment the last available data, of June, reflects a 2.1% increase in overnight stays and an increase in both the occupancy level and, above all, in the rates. Waiting for the tourist balance to be outlined and knowing if Spain will finally reach this year the milestone of the 100 million tourists foreigners, there are some clear trends. The main is that the Spanish sector grows largely thanks to the flow of foreign visitors. Aena’s data does not allow to know if July passengers are Spanish or travelers from other countries, but we know that in 2024 foreign demand played A fundamental role In the balance of hotels. 7.5% grew … Read more

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