The president and CEO of Aena, Maurici Lucena, has taken advantage of the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders corresponding to the 2023 financial year, which the company held at the Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport to ask the airlines for responsibility when it comes to facing the rise in airline costs. airport fees, which the manager charges companies to use their terminals, runways, walkways, aircraft parking, security or handling services, in a scenario of a new wave of investment that the semi-public entity will undertake to sustain the ‘boom’ of air traffic experienced by the sector.
The recent update of Aena’s strategic plan for the period between 2022 and 2026 projected a strong wave of investment by the airport manager to face the strong rebound in passenger traffic that the sector has experienced in response to the market recovery. It will be in the third Airport Regulation Document (DORA III) when the company participated in 51% through public capital and will propose investments from 2027 to 2031 that will, at least, double those made in previous regulatory periods. A milestone that airlines fear will translate into a sharp increase in rates.
Given this situation, Lucena paused in his speech to emphasize that Aena will seek a balance point to maintain the most competitive and lowest rates in Europe and at the same time face the demanding wave of investments that Spanish airports need. manager wanted to place special emphasis on the importance of designing rates appropriately because “if they are sensibly pushed downwards, they will cause poor functioning of the airports and the economic unsustainability of the airport system in the long term.”
Lucena has called for responsibility and has been forceful when expressing that “it does not seem reasonable to ask Aena to increase investments, at the same time that they are required to reduce rates”, which “finance the expansion of the airports”, and not designing them correctly would mean an “economic inconsistency that in the long term would damage the quality of the airports and punish tourism”.
The president and CEO of the company, 51% owned by the State, has highlighted the “splendid year” that air transport has experienced in the last year, where “Aena beat the level of activity prior to the pandemic, in 2019”, thanks to the “recovery of air traffic in Spain and the good preparation of the airports and the good form demonstrated by all the actors that make up the aviation scene”, he highlighted.
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