The new tender to renew the runway handling licenses of 43 Aena airports and two heliports has brought competition between operators to all-time highs. The tender is more demanding than ever, both in technical, labor and environmental terms, and has boosted the level of competition. Up to seventeen operators have submitted offers for a business in which total revenues are estimated to exceed 4,000 million euros in seven years.
One of the most disputed airports is precisely that of Barcelona, where most airlines do not have their own handling service – what is known as third-party assistance and which includes the transport of suitcases from the terminals to the planes, the management loading and mail or track operations– . Iberia currently holds the largest market share in El Prat, with 60% of the airlines that hire handling, including Vueling, its largest customer at all the airports where it offers this service. 25% of the passengers who fly in El Prat are attended by Iberia in the handling services on the runway.
Aena has tendered the three El Prat licenses and among the competitors, Iberia's is one of the most ambitious. The company has asked the airport operator to make an investment in the airport of 20 million euros, of the 112 million euros that it foresees for all the airports it attends. With a staff of some 2,000 people in Barcelona alone, the airline proposes to execute the 20 million euros in about two years to renew the handling fleet with electrified vehicles to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, one of the requirements set by Aena. on the table.
"Our main client, Vueling, is based at this airport and it is essential for us to maintain the handling license in Barcelona," confirms José Luis de Luna, Iberia's Director of Airport Services. And it is that the fact of belonging to the same group, IAG, does not guarantee in any case the contracting of the service. In fact, the low cost was about to separate from Iberia handling in 2019 due to the problems of strikes that forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in summer. Now the tables have turned. Iberia has just signed the new collective agreement for personnel in the sector, with salary increases, with which social peace is one of the assets that it places before Aena to renew this important business in Barcelona. The contest is expected to be resolved between May and June, with a dozen operators awaiting the outcome.
