AENA to share regional airport management

John Gallagher

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The Spanish government will seek to devolve some airport management responsibilities to the Catalonian government following local elections on November 1

Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has shed light on the reason behind the delay in Spanish airport authority AENA launching its long-awaited retail tender covering most of the airports in its network. Zapatero announced yesterday that following the Catalan regional elections to be held on November 1, the central government would start negotiations with the newly elected regional government to discuss Catalonian participation in the management of airports in the region.

Industry analysts have speculated that the long awaited tender has been delayed while the ministry of public works puts the finishing touches to the future model for the state-controlled airport system, which is likely to include partial devolution of management control to the Catalonian government, the Catalan Chambers of Commerce and Barcelona Town Council. Other sources have indicated that the airport authority has delayed the tender to take full account of possible changes in the Spanish tobacco law and European legislation on the restriction on the sale of liquids in airports.

Zapatero stressed that air traffic control and security would remain in the hands of one central authority but indicated that the government “has the will to reach agreements and accepts the possibility of sharing the management of airports with regional governments”. He went on to say that the negotiations “were extremely important because they could define changes in the future management model of the airport system throughout Spain”.

In September 18.9m passengers used the Spanish airport network, an increase of 6% on the same month last year. The two principal airports, Madrid and Barcelona, enjoyed strong growth with traffic increasing by 6.6% and 11.1% respectively. During the first nine months of the year total network traffic reached 148.8m passengers, an increase of 6.5% on the period last year.