• IAG, Q3, Results

    Madrid Barajas Airport

    IATA/ICAO Code:
    MAD/LEMD

    Nation:
    Spain

    CEO:
    Maurici Lucena Betriu

    Passenger Rely :
    24,135,220 (2021)

    Runways :
    14R/32L – 4,100m (13,451ft) |18L/36R – 3,500m (11,482ft) |14L/32R – 3,500m (11,482ft) |18R/36L – 4,350m (14,271ft)

    Terminals:
    Terminal 1 |Terminal 2 |Terminal 3 |Terminal 4 |Terminal 4S

  • Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport (BCN) Vueling getty

    Barcelona-El Prat Airport

    IATA/ICAO Code:
    BCN/LEBL

    Nation:
    Spain

    CEO:
    Maurici Lucena

    Passenger Rely :
    18,874,896 (2021)

    Runways :
    07L/25R – 3,743m (12,280ft) |07R/25L – 2,660m (8,727ft) |02/20 – 2,528m (8,293ft)

    Terminals:
    Terminal 1 |Terminal 2

State-owned airport operator Aena has forecasted that seats supplied by airways through the winter season will drastically exceed pre-pandemic ranges. As one of many greatest airport operators worldwide, the Spanish firm manages about 46 airports inside the nation, comparable to Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Córdoba Airport, Ibiza Airport, and Palma de Mallorca Airport, to call a number of,


How busy will winter be?

For the yr ending 2019, all of the Spanish airports managed by Aena recorded a complete of 275.25 million passengers dealt with. The airports additionally recorded 2.36 million flight operations for the yr. And simply earlier than summer season began in mid-June, Aena famous that airways have been already reserving a capability of a minimum of 215 million passengers inbound and outbound from Spain, which was already roughly 1.6% greater than the identical interval in 2019.

SIMPLEFLYING VIDEO OF THE DAY

Aena expects an identical, if not increased, improve through the peak winter season, although the airport operator didn’t specify what number of seats the airways are anticipated to make accessible. Such an expectation appears intact as after closing the month of August, the airports of Aena have been already reporting having dealt with 27,301,674 passengers, a restoration of practically 93% of passenger site visitors in comparison with the identical interval in 2019.

Although it was a close to 14% lower in comparison with August 2019, Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport registered the best variety of passengers in August with virtually 5 million. Photograph: 
FDV through Wikimedia Commons

With August’s rely, the primary eight months of this yr noticed the passenger site visitors dealt with by Spanish airports improve by greater than 85% in comparison with the identical interval in 2019, with an approximate whole of practically 160 million passengers. Though the variety of international passengers visiting Spain is barely beneath pre-pandemic ranges, Aena is assured that the international site visitors may be improved by giving airways quite a few incentives however didn’t specify what they have been.

How will the airports cope?

Whereas the forecasted improve is an effective signal for the restoration of the Spanish aviation business, it does lead one to marvel how the airports will deal with the anticipated demand. Most European airports struggled with extreme employees shortages, and Spanish airports weren’t spared. Main Spanish airports, together with Gran Canaria Airport, Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport, and Barcelona Airport, to call a number of, discovered themself unable to deal with the overwhelming passenger demand through the summer season holidays.

Lengthy passenger queues have been typically current at baggage assortment, immigration, check-in counters, and plane gate maintain rooms. Passengers cited points comparable to lacking baggage because of a scarcity of luggage handlers, paid lounges being closed off because of a lack of employees, regardless of having loads of accessible seats, and safety strains taking a minimum of two hours because of a scarcity of safety officers. General, it was chaos throughout a number of vital Spanish airports.

Finally, the Spanish authorities deployed further border guards to function in 12 airports, comparable to Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Girona, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Madrid, Málaga, Mallorca, Menorca, Valencia, Fuerteventura, Sevilla, and Tenerife South. Happily, the deployment could be everlasting as a substitute of only a momentary reduction measure for the summer season demand.

Pairing that with the belief that the airports had employed extra employees within the earlier months, it is fairly doubtless that even with the anticipated increased calls for for the upcoming winter season, the Spanish airports could be higher ready to deal with the surging passenger numbers. Hopefully, passengers may have a smoother journey when touring by way of Spain this winter.

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Supply: Reuters