Strikes by air traffic controllers in France, which force the cancellation or delay of dozens of flights in Spain every day of protests, and congestion problems at airports in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands or Germany have put airlines operating in Spain on alert before a summer that is expected to be a record for the sector despite inflation.
This was announced this Monday by the president of the Airlines Association (ALA), Javier Gándara, during the presentation of the summer campaign. "It is a question that worries us; although the problems are not as serious as last year, there may be alterations in European airports," Gándara pointed out.
In the summer of 2022 there were days of chaos at airports such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Heathrow due to a lack of ground personnel -security, controls, luggage...-. This, added to the strikes experienced by several airlines, caused days of tension, with thousands of flights and passengers affected. Spanish airports did not suffer from these problems - "the country was a positive exception", said Gándara - but in a network activity such as the airline, what happens in a specific place can end up having an impact on other countries.
The president of ALA has referred to the strikes of air traffic controllers in France, to flight limitations in Amsterdam or to the personnel problems at airports in the United Kingdom as the storm clouds that threaten the season. The airlines have once again demanded today that Europe intervene and force France to protect overflights in French airspace.
Even so, the prospects are very positive for the sector. The airlines have programmed 219 million seats in Spain for the summer season, which represents 3% more than those that were operated in the historic summer of 2019. These forecasts slightly lower the data offered by Aena a few weeks ago, when they it forecast 4.4% more seats. Gándara has indicated that it is a normal variation, since the airlines adjust their offer throughout the season.
The Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and Andalusia present figures much higher than those of 2019, with 7.8%, 7.4% and 8.2% more seats respectively.
On the other hand, the total recovery has not reached the airports of Barcelona and Barajas. In El Prat, just over 37 million seats are planned for the summer, 7.9% less than in the same season of 2019, while in Madrid almost 43.8 million seats have been put up for sale, a 3.1% less. Gándara has attributed this distance to the mix of passengers from both airports, with a greater weight of business trips and connections with Asia that are still below pre-pandemic activity.
