{"id":647,"date":"2026-04-11T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/647\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T00:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:00:52","slug":"airlines-hope-spain-will-set-lower-airport-fare-increases-some-operators-have-already-grounded-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/647\/","title":{"rendered":"Airlines hope Spain will set lower airport fare increases: some operators have already grounded flights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airlines<\/a> hope that the forthcoming Airport<\/a> Regulation Document (DORA III) will set more moderate fare increases than those proposed by Spanish airport authority Aena. At a \u201cHappiness Industry\u201d breakfast organised by the Hotusa group, the president of the Airlines Association (ALA), Javier G\u00e1ndara, and the CEO of Volotea, Carlos Mu\u00f1oz, discussed the situation in the aviation sector, also addressing the future of airport charges over the next five-year period from 2027 to 2031.<\/p>\n

Last February, Aena published its proposal for the next DORA with a 3.8% fee increase (equivalent to \u20ac0.43 per passenger), a rise intended to support the company\u2019s planned investments \u2013 some \u20ac13 billion \u2013 following an analysis of traffic forecasts for this period, during which it expects 1.69 billion passengers.<\/p>\n

Although the airport operator maintains that Spanish charges will remain among the most competitive in Europe, the aviation sector argues that this is a significant increase and that Aena\u2019s traffic forecasts are \u201ctoo conservative\u201d.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, G\u00e1ndara has stated that there is still hope that this increase will ultimately be moderated in the final DORA, as it must be analysed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and the National Securities Market Commission (CNMC) before becoming official policy.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, he pointed out that the two previous DORAs set downward tariff trends in the case of the first and frozen rates in the case of the second, a stance that \u201ccould be maintained for a few more years\u201d without altering Aena\u2019s investment plans or compromising its profit and loss accounts.<\/p>\n

Regarding the possibility that regional governments might have greater authority over Spanish airports\u2014a debate that has arisen following the bilateral agreement signed between the central government and the Basque Government\u2014Carlos Mu\u00f1oz noted that Aena has \u201cvery capable teams\u201d at the local level who could manage the airports effectively if \u201cthey had more leeway\u201d, something that occurs in countries such as France, but he considers this a model that \u201cis off the table here\u201d.<\/p>\n

G\u00e1ndara noted that Aena\u2019s model \u201chas advantages and disadvantages\u201d, but that \u201cit has proven to work\u201d although \u201cit could be improved\u201d. Therefore, both have indicated that their stance on co-management would depend on what form of co-management were established. \u201cWhat are the key decisions? Will investments be fixed? What about fares\u2026?\u201d asked G\u00e1ndara.<\/p>\n

However, he indicated that the current model works and that this co-management could \u201chave limited scope\u201d in certain areas such as the application of incentives. The proposed increase in operating fees has attracted widespread criticism from airlines like Ryanair<\/a> in particular which has reduced services to some Spanish airports in protest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airlines hope that the forthcoming Airport Regulation Document (DORA III) will set more moderate fare increases than those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[594,595,596,597,598,605,599,600,601,602,17,603,357,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-airfare-increase","9":"tag-airlines","10":"tag-airport","11":"tag-flight","12":"tag-holiday","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-majorca","15":"tag-mallorca","16":"tag-mallorca-costs","17":"tag-ryanair","18":"tag-spain","19":"tag-summer","20":"tag-travel","21":"tag-value-for-money"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647","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=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}