Airports Authority says tax hike is “essential,” Balearics may get relief

José Manuel Vargas, AENA's President was responding to criticism by airlines and travel industry representatives who had suggested that rather than putting up taxes by across the board amounts, it would be more meaningful, and in a long-term context more profitable, to link taxes to quality of service.

Backing Vargas who was speaking at a Central Government Budget Committee, Socialist Senator Gregorio Medina said: “I know that the 10.2% increase in airport tax for this year is inopportune both from the point of view of the financial crisis and the difficult situation many airlines find themselves in, but what has happened is that taxes weren't put up when they should have been and now we're facing the huge indebted consequences of that.” Vargas pointed out that AENA hasn't received any financing from this year's national budget and that at the moment, tax at Spanish airports is 43.5% cheaper than in other European countries. He said currently it wasn't possible to base taxes on competitivity, that a seat on an aircraft would only go up by 2.10 euros, and that the tax increase would bring AENA's debt down by 414 million euros. Medina said however that there are some countries which depend on the tourism as Spain does and which as a result subsidise airport taxes to give a competitive edge to the industry.

Partido Popular Senator Jaime Mateu said that the increase in Spanish airport tax is partly compensated by the fact that the tax for using national air space has been frozen until 2015. Meanwhile, because the Balearics depends so heavily on tourism, Vargas said that AENA is considering some form of airport tax relief for the Islands.