The tourism and travel sector continues to show signs of a vigorous recovery in activity after two years at a low, despite inflation and the war in Ukraine. Hotels are full again and in many places, like Barcelona, already more expensive than before the pandemic, while airlines brace for strong demand. The forecast that this year will almost equal the record records of 2019 is so widespread that Enaire, the manager of air navigation in Spain under the Ministry of Transport, will hire more air traffic controllers to assume the increase in aircraft traffic this summer. The entity announced yesterday that it has reinforced its staff of air traffic controllers because it expects a volume of flights close to the levels registered in the summer of three years ago.
Between the months of June and September, it estimates that 93% of the air traffic for the same period of 2019 will be reached in Spain, with a volume of flights that will exceed 750,000. By type of flight, a recovery of 92% is expected for domestic flights, 91% for overflights –which have no origin or destination in any Spanish airport–, and 89% for international travel.
Compared to figures from three years ago, the number of operational air traffic controllers across the network has risen 6% to 1,853, compared to the 1,748 controllers the company had before the pandemic.
By region, in the south the number of controllers has increased by 9.7% to 250; while in the Canary region there are currently 264, 9.1% more; and in the east – Catalonia, the Valencian Community and Murcia – a total of 512, which represents an increase of 8.3%. In addition, in the Balearic region, controllers have increased by 5.9%, to 197; and in the center-north they reach 630 controllers, 1.8% more.
Enaire's strategy of increasing its controller workforce dates back to 2016, when the company increased hiring in order to meet air traffic forecasts. In this sense, the current number of air traffic controllers, both operational and in management and support tasks, stands at 2,117, 7.6% more than the company's workforce in 2016.
Traffic control largely depends on the fact that planes take off from the airport on time and that there is no congestion. In fact, the black summers that Barcelona airport experienced a few years ago were largely caused by the air traffic controllers' strike in France. The neighboring country is now immersed in a change in its air traffic management system, a situation that Enaire is monitoring to try not to affect Spanish airports.
