Tag: airlines

Is Murcia’s ‘Ghost Airport’ Finally Set For Take-off?

24 April 2017 – El País

The government of Murcia has made definitive steps toward reviving the region’s international airport in Corvera and is once again putting the management contract for this ‘ghost’ travel hub out to tender, despite the failure of other similar ventures in Spain to pay off and in spite of the fact that it is still embroiled in a long-running legal battle with the first company to win the concession back in 2007.

The new phase of this cripplingly expensive aviation saga began on March 25 with the bidders’ conditions released in the Official Journal of the European Union. Interested companies have until May 2 to register. After that date, those who can provide proof of financial buoyancy and experience will have two months to provide detailed technical and economic plans.

Corvera airport received an initial investment of €270 million and building work on it is all but finished. But the facility was never opened to the public and, in December 2015, the regional government was forced to cancel the contract with Madrid-based Sacyr on the grounds that the company granted the concession had exceeded its allotted time period.

The subsequent legal battle between Sacyr and Murcia’s authorities has become increasingly complex and is now headed for the High Court.

Corvera is the first regional airport to be put out to tender since the frenzy to open small airports across Spain began sapping resources and leading – in the case of Castellón and Ciudad Real, to years of disuse – or, in the case in Huesca, Lérida, Salamanca, León, La Rioja, Burgos and Albacete, to crippling losses absorbed by the airport networks. When it opens, it will replace the region’s San Javier airport.

According to estimates from Murcia’s Department of Development and Infrastructure, Corvera will be able to welcome 800,000 foreign tourists in the first four years, pushing total passenger traffic up to 3.5 million a year, a figure which could, in time, rise to 5 million. It will also create 20,000 jobs and raise regional GDP by 3.5 percentage points.

These passenger figures would mean revenue of €495.8 million (€600 million including sales tax) in the first 25 years. A complementary activities zone totalling 600,000 square meters is also on the cards, with profits from it remaining in private hands.

The successful bidder will be able to establish fees and negotiate with airline operators – a freedom which should improve competitiveness in the Alicante, Murcia and Almería regions and allow for more efficient management, according to the authorities.

Meanwhile, the regional government has introduced two conditions to recoup some of the taxpayer money that has been sunk into the project: the successful bidder will pump €0.73 per passenger into state coffers for the first 10 years, €2.09 per passenger in the five years following that, €2.27 in the subsequent five years and €2.56 for the last five years. A total of 10% of income earned by cargo airline companies on cargo weighing more than 50,000 tonnes will also be paid to the region.

There will also be incentives to increase passenger traffic; if there are more than 2.5 million passengers a year, the successful bidder will get a discount of 5%; another 5% discount will be applied if numbers exceed 400,000 in the winter months, or from November to February.

Original story: El País (by Ramón Muñoz)

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Radisson Wants To Grow In Madrid & Barcelona

30 March 2017 – Expansión

Radisson Blu – the hotel chain belonging to the Carlson Rezidor group, which is itself controlled by the Chinese giant HNA – arrived in Spain in 2009, with the opening of the Radisson Blue Hotel Madrid Prado. Three years later, it opened a resort in Gran Canaria, and just a few months ago it inaugurated its newest hotel in the country, the Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, also in Gran Canaria.

Radisson Blu owns almost 300 hotels in 69 countries. Now, the company wants to strengthen its commitment to Spain and to this end, it is analysing Madrid and Barcelona with particular interest, as key destinations for the opening of new establishments under the Blu and Red brands. “Spain represents an opportunity. We perform most of our expansion through management contracts or franchises, which means that we are not interested in leases, however the properties must always be in good locations”, explained Richard Moore, Vice President for Western Europe, the UK and Ireland at Radisson Blu.

HNA Tourism Group completed the purchase of Carlson Hotels last year and so took over control of 51.3% of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, which operates in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, where it competes with NH, in which HNA also holds a stake. (…).

Moore added that the chain has studied options on the Mediterranean coast but that, for the firm to open a hotel, it “has to fit with our brand. We are proud of the way we make our brands fit with the properties and of our relationships with the property owners”.

Specifically, in the case of its most recent hotel in the Canary Islands, the chain has reached an agreement with the Norwegian family group Wenaasgruppen, which owns 24 hotels. It is the second time that the company has worked with the Norwegian group, which also owns the other hotel that Radisson manages in Gran Canaria. (…).

Moore added “There are lots of reasons why we want to have a presence in Spain and, above all, in Gran Canaria”. He said that, in the last twelve months, the number of tourist arrivals in Gran Canaria has grown by 14% and the average revenue per room (RevPar) has risen by 18% – or 15% in the case of luxury hotels -. “25 airlines fly to 142 destinations from Gran Canaria in 25 countries. It is the second most popular destination after Tenerife”, he said.

Brexit

In terms of risks to the business, Moore does not think that Brexit will have a significant impact on tourism in the islands and less so on the hotels that the group manages, which are upscale establishments (five stars) with a very diversified client base. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebecca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aena Plans To Sell Off Land & Move Its HQ To Barajas

21 June 2016 – El Confidencial

(…). Aena has launched an ambitious plan to generate the maximum possible returns from its vast land holdings, above all, those located around the two jewels in the group’s crown: the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez and Barcelona-El Prat aerodromes.

The airport manager, whose main objectives since it debuted on the stock exchange has been to optimise its real estate assets, has decided to split the land auction that it has launched into three batches to obtain the maximum benefit from its wealth: the first is limited to Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez; the second to Barcelona-El Prat airport; and the third comprises all of the strategic and real estate consultancy work.

According to El Confidencial, the only way of participating in the bid is by invitation and to this end, the company led by José Manuel Vargas is now making contact with the best international firms in the sector.

In order to benefit from the extensive plan, the company has also decided to consider transferring its headquarters to the capital’s airport, where Aena has ambitious plans, not only to construct offices and hotels, but also to complete its service offering, with meeting rooms for executives, as well as new hangars and warehouses. (…)

Behind Aena’s plans is the logic that the airport manager is the tenant of the buildings that it currently occupies in the capital and which it would vacate if this operation ends up going ahead: the building on Calle Arturo Soria 109, which houses Aena Desarrollo Internacional, and the property on Peonías 12, in the elitist area of La Piovera.

New times, new businesses

(…). Aena owns 2,000 hectares of land around its aerodromes, land that is concentrated in Madrid (which accounts for 40% of the total or 800 hectares) and Barcelona (18% or 360 hectares). The vast size of this space, together with the hub nature of these two infrastructures, are the two pivots around which the public company is designing its master plan.

On the one hand, it wants to take advantage of the boom in e-commerce and of the growth of companies such as Amazon, to construct and lease warehouses that will become the large storerooms of these types of companies in our country. (…).

On the other hand, Aena also wants to build new hangars for airlines on land closer to the airport terminals, something that it has already done under the terms of the agreement signed with Globalia for its subsidiary Air Europa at Terminal 1.

Finally, the airport manager wants to build hotels, offices and meeting centres in the vicinity of Barajas and El Prat, an initiative aimed at turning the two jewels in its crown into genuine airport cities and meeting points, which will allow executives from all over the world use these two infrastructures as their operational bases. (…)

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake