The airports with the highest number of seats are Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, with 48.2 million, and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, with 42.2 million
The airlines have scheduled a total of 243 million seats and close to 1.4 million commercial operations, between arrivals and departures, for the summer season, 7.9% and 7.7% more than in the 2023 summer season, respectively, according to a press release.
The airports with the highest seat supply are Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, with 48.2 million (6.8%) and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, with 42.2 million (11%).
They are followed by the airports of Palma, with 33.2 million (8.3%); Malaga-Costa del Sol, with 20 million (10.9%); Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez, with 14.2 million (13.1%); Gran Canaria, with 9.8 million (11.6%) and Ibiza with 9.8 million (4%).
By geographic area, the domestic market increased its schedule by 2.8%, while the European market grew by 10.1% compared to the previous summer season. On international routes, the markets with the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy have increased scheduling by 8.3%, 5.9% and 22%, respectively, compared to summer 2023.
In any case, Aena has reminded that the scheduling of seats and movements is always subject to change by the airlines.
Incentives for airlines
At its ordinary meeting held in January, Aena’s board of directors approved a package of incentives for the 32 airports and heliports that had fewer than three million passengers in 2023: Asturias, Girona-Costa Brava, La Palma, A Coruña, Seve Ballesteros-Santander, Vigo, Reus, Federico García Lorca GranadaJaén, Jerez, A.I. Region of 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.
Ibiza Airport / Vicent Marí
Thus, the airlines will be exempted from paying the passenger fee of all additional passengers to those of 2023 for three consecutive years. In the case of the two heliports, Algeciras and Ceuta, the annual incentives, aimed at stimulating connectivity, are also maintained. Likewise, the incentives applied to La Palma Airport since the volcano crisis remain in force.
In addition, until March 2027, the incentives for the opening of new routes to new destinations in airports with more than three million passengers are extended and the growth of routes with Asia is stimulated with respect to the previous equivalent season.
These incentives will be applied on the approved tariffs for 2024which represent an update of 4.09%, equivalent to 40 euro cents per passenger on average throughout Spain. These fares came into effect on March 1, 2024 and are lower than those for 2019.
Between 2015 and 2023, Aena fares fell nominally by 11%. In that period, inflation was 21%. In real terms, these tariffs fell by 32% in the 2015-2023 period.