Tension grows between airlines and Spanish airport operator

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has expressed strong concern over recent remarks by Maurici Lucena, chairman and chief executive of AENA, Spain’s main airport operator, after he suggested that airlines calling for reductions in airport charges were “compromising safety and security”.

Responding to the comments, IATA Director General Willie Walsh said that safety remains the aviation industry’s top priority and rejected any suggestion that airlines would jeopardise it.

“Safety is the number one priority of airlines and the whole aviation industry,” Walsh said, adding that the chairman of AENA appears to misunderstand this reality, which he described as further evidence that the airport operator is detached from the fundamental realities of aviation, including both safety and economics.

At the same time, Walsh made clear that airlines’ concerns over cost-efficient airport charges have no connection whatsoever to safety or security standards.

“The legitimate concern of airlines for cost-efficient airport charges is in no way related to any compromise on the safety and security of passengers and aviation employees,” he said, while adding that such “scaremongering” was inappropriate and, in his words, “shows the flimsy grounds AENA have for justifying their request for a 16 per cent charges increase”.

More broadly, IATA stressed that safe, efficient and affordable air connectivity is a shared responsibility across the aviation value chain, involving both airlines and airports.

In this context, the association clarified that airlines are not seeking “excessively cheap infrastructure”, as Lucena suggested, nor do they underestimate the importance of safety and security while pursuing this common objective.

Walsh went on to explain that airlines have consistently called for airport charges to reflect passenger growth, appropriate investment and a reasonable rate of return.

At the same time, he noted that airlines are already facing mounting pressures, including rising regulatory and environmental costs, supply chain constraints, volatile fuel prices, as well as increasing airport and air traffic control charges.

Despite these challenges, he said, airlines have continued to deliver increasingly affordable connectivity in Spain.

“Adjusting for inflation, air fares have decreased by 9 per cent since 2019,” Walsh said, adding that across the 15 largest Spanish airports, real airfares have fallen between 6 per cent and 37 per cent over the past decade.

Against this backdrop, he argued, rigorous scrutiny of airport charges is both legitimate and necessary, in order to ensure that connectivity remains affordable for consumers and sustainable for the wider economy.

Turning to the financial performance of AENA, IATA also pointed out that during the last two regulatory periods the airport operator generated €1.32 billion more in returns than permitted under Spain’s economic regulatory decisions.

Moreover, the association noted that in 2024 AENA’s regulated and non-regulated activities in Spain achieved a net profit margin of 36.4 per cent, compared with an average net margin of 3.5 per cent for European airlines.

In light of this, IATA stressed that airlines operating in Spain require independent, transparent and consultative airport regulation, in line with the principles set out by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Such a framework, it said, should balance the interests of airports, airlines, passengers and the broader economy.

Ultimately, the association added that productive engagement between stakeholders, rather than rhetoric, remains the most effective way to ensure Spain’s airports continue to support growth, regional development and high-quality passenger services.

In this context, IATA concluded that it stands ready to work with AENA and other stakeholders to foster a collaborative approach that strengthens Spain’s aviation sector over the long term.