Airports Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, Gran Canaria and Ibiza have the highest number of available seats.
Airline companies have scheduled 243 million seats (departures and arrivals) and nearly 1.4 million commercial operations (landings and take-offs) at Aena airports for the summer season, which kicks off next Sunday 31 March and will last until Saturday 26 October 2024. This entails an increase of 7.9% in seats compared to the same season in 2023 and a 7.7% increase in scheduled operations.
Airports where the highest number of seats are planned are Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, at 48.2 million (6.8% more than in 2023) and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, at 42.2 million (11% more). They are followed by the airports of Palma de Mallorca, at 33.2 million (+8.3%); Málaga-Costa del Sol, at 20 million (+10.9%); Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, at 14.2 million (+13.1%); Gran Canaria, at 9.8 million (+11.6%); and Ibiza, at 9.8 million seats (+4%).
These statistics are based on a typical 30-week season; therefore the data have been adjusted to compensate for the effect of the additional week of the 2023 summer season. They compare airline
schedules for the 2024 summer season as of 31 January 2024 with the airline schedules for the 2023 summer season as of 31 January 2023.
By geographical area, the domestic market has increased its scheduling by 2.8% and the European market by 10.1%, compared to the previous summer season. On international routes, markets with the UK, Germany and Italy have increased their schedules by 8.3%, 5.9% and 22% respectively, compared to the summer of 2023. In any case, it should be remembered that seat and movement scheduling is always subject to changes by the airlines.
Incentives for airlines
In its General Meeting in January, the Board of Directors of Aena approved an incentive package for the 32 airports and heliports that had fewer than 3 million passengers in 2023, namely: Asturias, Girona-Costa Brava, La Palma, La Palma, A Coruña, Seve Ballesteros-Santander, Vigo, Reus, Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén, Jerez, A.I. Región de Murcia, Almería, Zaragoza, Melilla, San Sebastián, Vitoria, El Hierro, Valladolid, Pamplona, La Gomera, Ceuta, Badajoz, León, Algeciras, Salamanca, Logroño-Agoncillo, Son Bonet, Sabadell, Córdoba, Burgos, Albacete, Madrid-Cuatro Vientos and Huesca-Pirineos.
Airlines will be exempted from paying the passenger fee for all additional travellers beyond 2023 for three consecutive years. Annual incentives for the two heliports, Algeciras and Ceuta, are also maintained, in order to boost connectivity. The incentives applied to La Palma Airport since the volcano crisis remain in place.
In addition, the incentives for opening routes to new destinations at airports with more than 3 million passengers are extended until March 2027, and growth is boosted with regard to the previous equivalent season on routes to Asia. These incentives shall be applied on the approved fees for 2024, which involve an update of 4.09%, equivalent to 40 euro cents per passenger on average across Spain. These fees came into force on 1 March 2024 and are lower than the 2019 fees.
Between 2015 and 2023, Aena’s fees fell nominally by 11%. In that period, inflation was 21%. In real terms, these fees fell by 32% over the period 2015-2023.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
