Major airlines operating in the Spanish market are legally required to forward their air traffic forecasts to Aena so that the airport manager can calculate how much his proposal will increase or decrease airport fares for each year. Without this information, neither Aena, which made the offer, nor the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), which finally approved it, cannot calculate what to do with the fares airlines pay to use Spanish airports.
Specifically, they top ten companies by air traffic volume Those who need Aena to segment their annual passenger growth forecasts, at least in national and international traffic; and in the international segment, it is recommended to separate traffic forecasts within and outside the European Union, or to differentiate between medium and long-distance routes. Every year, major airlines provide this data at Aena’s request, but in recent years some companies have failed to comply with this obligation.
They did not meet the requirement last year, according to the CNMC’s recent decisions on setting airport fees. Air Nostrum, Binter Canarias and Norwegian. And in the previous exercise Eurowings (subsidiary of German airline giant Lufthansa)) did not provide data. And in the same decisions, it is stated that the obligations in Law No. 18/2014 are violated, the regulations on how to prepare and develop the sequential Airport Regulatory Documents (DORA) governing Aena’s activities, investments and fees. five-year periods.
However, the airlines were not prosecuted or sanctioned as the CNMC and the Government disagreed on who was responsible for doing so and pointed to each other as responsible. The Ministry of Transport clearly sees the body that needs to assess the possible situation. violations It is competition and it is argued from the CNMC that this work exceeds its responsibilities and is therefore limited to reporting violations to the Ministry and therefore acts as confirmed by EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, a newspaper belonging to the same publishing group. As this media, the official sources of both events admit that no enforcement procedure has been activated in this area.
What kind of violations of Law No. 18/2014, the Government will not be able to determine whether the CNMC, the State Aviation Safety Agency or Civil aviation general directorate (item 44). And in this distribution, it is clear that the CNMC is responsible for identifying violations of not providing required information to Aena or providing incomplete, inaccurate or inaccurate information by companies (clause 43).
CNMC’s interpretation is very different. from Organization headed by Cani Fernández It is stated that the responsibility for identifying violations of non-disclosure in the consultation procedure for determining airport fares is limited to those committed by Aena, but unless the airlines do so. “For the specific case of airlines, the CNMC does not have the authority to sanction, and so we always send this information to the Ministry so that those in charge can take action if they see fit.” indicate from the supervisor.
The CNMC recognizes that its task is to oversee that Aena itself complies with the consultation and transparency procedure and to ensure that the rates set comply with current regulations. The body stated that the sanction of a very serious violation stipulated in the law due to non-disclosure is only for Aena and that this “totally disproportionate” It also applies to airlines.
For this reason, violations of airlines are submitted to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation and, if appropriate, these issues are determined. Ministry of Transport if they should be punished. Something that didn’t happen and was predictably unlikely, given that the government thinks it’s the CNMC that should be responsible.