{"id":14111,"date":"2026-04-29T20:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/14111\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:06:10","slug":"spains-airport-authority-aena-posts-9-quarterly-profit-rise-on-higher-airport-traffic-airlines-not-impressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/14111\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s airport authority Aena posts 9% quarterly profit rise on higher airport traffic: Airlines not impressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spanish airports operator Aena (AENA.MC), opens new tab said on Wednesday its first-quarter net profit<\/a> \u200brose 9.3% from a year ago \u200cas passenger traffic to and from Spain<\/a>, one of the world\u2019s most-visited countries, continued to \u200bgrow. The company, which operates all of \u200bSpain\u2019s airports, as well as some \u2060in Latin America and Britain, said \u200bit booked a net profit of 329.4 \u200bmillion euros ($385.37 million), beating analysts\u2019 average forecast of 325 million euros compiled by LSEG.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s tourism industry \u200bcontinues to benefit from strong demand, \u200bprompting airlines operating in Spain to add capacity for the \u200csummer \u2060season, although the tourism industry has flagged potential risks from a fuel supply crunch linked to the Iran war, which could \u200bcurtail travel. Passenger \u200btraffic \u2060at Spanish airports increased 3.2% in the first quarter, above Aena\u2019s \u200bfull-year estimates of a 1.3% \u200brise, \u2060a slower pace than in 2025.<\/p>\n

Aena\u2019s revenue grew 11.6% to 1.47 billion euros in \u2060the \u200bfirst quarter, slightly above \u200bthe analysts\u2019 estimates of 1.42 billion euros. However, some airlines will not be impressed with the profits as the debate over airport operating fees rages on.<\/p>\n

Ryanair<\/a>, Spain\u2019s number one airline, this week condemned the Spanish government\u2019s decision to pocket a dividend of \u20ac834 million from Spanish airport authority Aena, a state-controlled monopoly, as part of a record dividend of \u20ac1.65 billion, without doing anything to halt the collapse in traffic at Spain\u2019s regional airports, which remain under-utilised by almost 70% and continue to lose routes, tourists and jobs.<\/p>\n

Despite holding a 51% stake and being responsible for pricing policy, the Spanish government is driving airlines out of Spain\u2019s regions. Instead of using its control to block the 21% increase (plus inflation) in charges proposed by Aena for DORA III, and demanding lower regional airport charges to boost growth in Spain, the Government is choosing to maximise cash returns by allowing Aena to abuse its monopoly position at Spain\u2019s main airports, securing excessive margins of 60% at the expense of local economies, which depend on affordable air travel for tourism and employment.<\/p>\n

As Aena\u2019s main shareholder, the Government is also backing investments worth billions of euros abroad, with \u20ac800 million allocated to Aena\u2019s airports in the UK and Brazil over the last 12 months, in addition to the billions previously committed to other non-Spanish airports. Meanwhile, it continues to turn a blind eye to the situation at Spain\u2019s regional airports, which are \u2018bleeding dry\u2019 as they lose traffic due to Aena\u2019s failed high-cost pricing structure, approved and facilitated by the Spanish Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish airports operator Aena (AENA.MC), opens new tab said on Wednesday its first-quarter net profit \u200brose 9.3% from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[596,7683,1254,1391,950,599,600,1393,2519,7681,602,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-14111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-airport","9":"tag-airport-fees","10":"tag-balearics","11":"tag-british-tourists","12":"tag-flights","13":"tag-majorca","14":"tag-mallorca","15":"tag-palma-airport","16":"tag-passengers","17":"tag-profit","18":"tag-ryanair","19":"tag-spain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}