Spanish airport operator Aena’s rates for 2025 will remain unchanged, according to has resolved the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC)which is the body in charge of annually supervising and controlling the updating of these rates, rejecting the company’s offer of increase.
Aena had proposed an increase of 0.05 euros per passenger for 2025, approved by its board of directors in July, but the CNMC considered it unnecessary, arguing the priority of fare stability and the balance between service costs and income. . Thus, Competition said that the maximum adjusted annual income per passenger will remain at 10.35 euros.
Airports charge fees to airlines for services such as the use of their terminals, runways, aircraft parking, security and baggage handling. These fees affect the price of the plane tickets that passengers buy.
The CNMC emphasizes that, to preserve rate stability and achieve balance between income and costs of the different services, “it has been necessary to modulate” the rate variation. In this way, increases in landing, security or parking prices, for example, will be offset by rate decreases in aerodrome transit, use of infrastructure or aviation fuel.
The airlines that operate at Aena airports hope to continue growing during the winter season and beat last year’s passenger record as the sector continues to recover from the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Some companies, such as the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, have called for an “urgent reduction” of what they consider “excessive” fees from Aena.
The CNMC said Aena’s initial traffic forecast for 2025 was overly conservative and had since been adjusted.
In May 2024, during the first meeting of the consultation procedure, Aena presented an estimated traffic increase for 2024 of 3.75%, with the real accumulated growth until April of that year being 11%.
Later, in June, it announced that it was updating the 2024 traffic forecasts and, however, maintained the estimate presented during the consultation procedure for 2025, alluding to the fact that it was behaving very differently than expected.
Taking this update into account, traffic growth would be 8.3%, up to around 305.7 million passengers at the end of this year (9.8%), therefore exceeding that forecast by Aena for 2024 (292.9 million passengers) and by 2025 (301.6 million).
It is considered that the estimate presented by Aena during the consultation procedure of 301.6 million passengers “underestimates traffic and will foreseeably be exceeded in 2024, which makes it necessary to correct the forecast for 2025.”
The CNMV’s estimates, taking into account those of the airlines and Eurocontrol, are 317.5 million passengers in 2025 as a whole.
Aena shares were down 0.4% at 1040 GMT.
(1 dollar = 0.9499 euros)
(Reporting by Maria Luiza Amaral; editing by Inti Landauro and Mark Potter; Spanish editing by Jorge Ollero Castela)
Competition freezes Aena airport rates for the year 2025
(Updates with more information)
Madrid, Dec 5 (EFE).- The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has determined that Aena’s airport rates for the year 2025, on average, will remain unchanged with respect to those of 2024.
The CNMC, which is the body in charge of annually supervising and controlling the updating of these rates, announced this Thursday in this regard that, for next year, Aena’s traffic forecast has been adjusted “as it is too conservative.”
The maximum income per adjusted passenger (IMAAJ) applicable to the 2025 fares will, therefore, be 10.35 euros per passenger, as in 2024, when it experienced an increase of 4.09%, equivalent to 40 cents, which applies from last March.
The airport manager recalled that his proposal increased the rate by just 5 cents, to 10.40 euros, and told EFE that he will analyze the CNMC resolution released this Thursday.
Airport fees are amounts that Aena charges airlines for using their terminals, runways, walkways, security or meteorological services, fuel or food on board. All of them “have an impact” on the price of passenger tickets, recalls the regulator.
At the end of last July, the Board of Directors of Aena approved an increase of 0.54% of the IMAAJ in the amounts of airport fees applicable from March 2025, which set it at 10.40 euros per passenger, a proposal against which, In August, IATA, Ryanair and the ALA association filed a dispute with the CNMC, requesting that it be modified.
Traffic forecasts
In May 2024, during the first meeting of the consultation procedure, Aena presented an estimated traffic increase for 2024 of 3.75%, with the real accumulated growth until April of that year being 11%.
Later, in June, it announced that it was updating the 2024 traffic forecasts and, however, maintained the estimate presented during the consultation procedure for 2025, alluding to the fact that it was behaving very differently than expected.
Taking this update into account, traffic growth would be 8.3%, up to around 305.7 million passengers at the end of this year (9.8%), therefore exceeding that forecast by Aena for 2024 (292.9 million passengers) and by 2025 (301.6 million).
It is considered that the estimate presented by Aena during the consultation procedure of 301.6 million passengers “underestimates traffic and will foreseeably be exceeded in 2024, which makes it necessary to correct the forecast for 2025.”
The CNMV estimates, taking into account those of the airlines and Eurocontrol, are 317.5 million passengers in 2025 as a whole. EFE
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