The Flight of the Falcon is the name of the documentary, available on Amazon Prime, about the career of one of Spain's most iconic businessmen, Juan José Hidalgo. Born in Salamanca, “82 and a half years ago”, as he himself explained in the great event he organized this week to welcome the new jewel in the airline's crown, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (not to be confused with the model that has had a failure in the fuselage). Air Europa will have six aircraft this year, all of them rented through a leasing contract to Aercap for 1.2 billion. The company is approaching a new shareholder stage.
Hidalgo highlighted that Air Europa has one of the most valuable and modern fleets in the world. There will be airlines with more planes and more capacity, but few like those of the Globalia group company. These are the assets that have been sold to IAG for 400 million. The operation was not easy, but now there remains a complex process: obtaining approval from the competition authorities of the European Commission. Negotiations are underway.
Air Europa stands out, and Hidalgo himself was in charge of highlighting this, for its relationship with Boeing. They have been bound by contracts for 23 years. In fact, the sales manager of the American manufacturer in Europe, Sergio Ramos, showed signs of the camaraderie that unites them with the businessman. He spoke of “the flight of the hawk” and said that Hidalgo could be better defined with the term “the flight of the phoenix,” since “after each blow it gets up and manages to fly higher.”
One of the critical moments for Air Europa was the pandemic. The airline had to request a loan of 240 million. IAG contributed 100 and later converted it into equity, taking 20% of the competing airline. “They told us that we were worth a euro, that we were ruined,” Juan José Hidalgo recalled this week. “They never gave us a euro, they gave us a loan, with great interest that we are paying,” he added. “No one supported the company, among everyone around us we have moved forward,” he wanted to highlight.
Air Europa closed 2023 with a gross result of 200 million in profits and with, in addition, 120 million in cash to proceed with a capital increase or “to have peace of mind,” highlighted its owner.
The future of Air Europa is not yet definitively written, but all roads lead to IAG, to the company's merger with Iberia. What Hidalgo asked is for Air Europa to follow the outlined roadmap because the airline “has reached the optimal moment.” Today it transports more passengers than in 2019. “I want to express the satisfaction that I must have gotten this far with this company,” said the businessman.
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was not the only novelty that Air Europa presented this week. Hidalgo broke the tape on the airline's new macro hangar at the Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport. It will be a “new center of excellence” for Globalia and aspires to become the reference facility for commercial aircraft maintenance in Spain. The businessman also stated that it is a unique place in Europe. There are 22,400 square meters between offices, warehouses and workshops, and it will start with 115 employees with the possibility of reaching 180 in 2025. The objective is to be able to repair or maintain three Boeing Dreamliners at a time or six narrow-body aircraft. It will be operational in March. “If we want to be a large company we had to have a large maintenance center,” said Juan José Hidalgo. Raising it has not been easy. In total, it has been a decade of efforts and works.
Hidalgo's goal, and he made it known to Boeing, is for this hangar parallel to the Barcelona highway to become “a representative center for Boeing in Europe.” That is, the manufacturer can keep its aircraft in Madrid. We will see in the future.
The Spanish aviation sector observes the acquisition process of Air Europa by IAG. The two companies are expectant and working with that horizon. Also Aena, which is already working on the expansion of T4, T4S and T1-2-3. Javier Marín, executive vice president of the airport manager, explained it in front of Hidalgo: the objective is for Barajas to be the main connection hub with Latin America and an important point between America and Asia. In Madrid, all the actors have a clear horizon, waiting for the expansion of the El Prat airport.
