Aena finally sets a date for the market launch of the Barcelona-El Prat airport city, a project that has remained without a date or calendar until recently and whose execution is independent of the frustrated expansion of this airport. The manager has identified 151 hectares to dedicate to different uses that will be made available to interested parties as of 2024, as reported yesterday by the company's general commercial and real estate director, María José Cuenda.
The initial project will consist of a hotel next to T2 that will be tendered in the second half of 2024. Then, in the first half of 2025, Aena plans to put 36 hectares on the market for the development of a first logistics pole, which will constitute one of the great projects of the aircity around the Barcelona airport. For later, 2026, the launch of new plans is planned, such as offices and another hotel in T1, a logistics pole in front of the cargo area, a mixed-use area also in T2 and new hangars.
Aena is currently working on unblocking the necessary administrative authorizations to undertake these operations in the surroundings of El Prat, an "intense" negotiation, as the company acknowledges, with the Generalitat, among other administrations.
The listed company has already launched the first action in the airport city of Madrid-Barajas, with the award of 32 hectares for logistics uses for 170 million. The first warehouses will begin to be erected at the beginning of 2024 and new offices and hotels will be added to them in the coming years. The airports of Malaga, Valencia and Seville will also have their own airport cities.
The airport manager yesterday presented its 2022-2026 strategic plan, a document in which it reflects that Spanish airports will recover pre-Covid traffic in 2024, two years ahead of schedule due to the lightning recovery in tourism. That year there will be more than 275 million passengers and in 2026 they will reach 300 million, according to what the president, Maurici Lucena, highlighted yesterday.
The company will once again distribute dividends to its shareholders. Lucena's team proposed a pay-out of 80% on profit before adjustments. For the calculation of the 2023 payment, the consequences of the so-called Aena amendment, which forced the modification of the airport premises contracts, will be eliminated. This supposes an additional remuneration of 1.37 euros per share on the distribution that would be made if this exception were not included. The main beneficiary of this decision is the public treasury, as it is the company's largest shareholder. As Enaire, dependent on the Treasury, has 51% of Aena, the State will enter almost 100 million only with this extra.
Lucena announced to analysts that the forecast is for Aena's revenues to increase by 23% this year compared to 2019 and pointed to a "powerful wave of investment". He also wanted to highlight the launch for next year of the world's largest competition for duty-free shops in Spanish airports and the tender for 300 catering shops in Madrid-Barajas.
In the international area, Aena's objective in the coming year is to consolidate assets outside of Spain and go out for purchases with specific and reasonable operations. Two markets that the company has set its sights on are Latin America and, specifically, Brazil, where it already manages 20% of the country's traffic after the latest awards, among which the Congonhas-Sao Paulo airport stands out, and Asia- Peaceful. The top official pointed out that for the company it is essential that the country where it disembarks has political stability.
On the cost side, Aena expects to increase them at the end of the year due to the rise in the Minimum Wage in Europe, the improvements in security at its facilities and the increase in the price of energy. To try to deal with the last problem, the company has launched a photovoltaic plan to install solar panels on its land and try to reduce the final bill. You will end up producing more energy than you consume. Lucena defended that "we will continue to be the most efficient airport operator in Europe
