Peru, Greece and Singapore bid for handling work in the Canary Islands

The value of the macro contract, tendered by Aena and divided into 21 lots, including 43 main Spanish airports, including Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat, is worth approximately EUR 5,000 million over its seven-year validity period. This is currently the largest open tender in Spain. The juicy amount of the deal and the boom in tourism, which has experienced a new boom after the paralysis caused by Covid in Europe, have sparked interest in seven major foreign groups handling the island’s airports. The Autonomous Community’s airports are located at number 6, Gran Canaria; 7, Tenerife South; 11, Lanzarote-César Manrique; 13, Tenerife North; 14, Fuerteventura; and 18, where contracts for the management of the ramp service at three airports on the green islands were jointly presented: La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.

Canary Binter put out a tender for the green islands packageVia Atlántica Handling, these three island airports are among the least interesting in the industry due to their small throughput. These are five other infrastructures of the Archipelago, which are not in vain among the most profitable of the Spanish airport network, with which European and foreign multinationals are engaged in stiff competition.

This situation Belgian Aviapartner, owned by the HIG venture capital fund, made an offer for contracts to provide ground handling services at eight airports in the region.Including those of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. Aviapartner is therefore competing with Binter-Atlántica Handling for services on the green islands, where it also offers its WFS credentials, and with the Binter-Menzies alliance, among others, for five parts of the Islands’ major airports. . The above-mentioned WFS, short for Worldwide Flight Services, which is headquartered in France but is owned by Singaporean SATS group, is the third and final firm vying to manage ramp services at all airports on the island. There is also Swissport Handling, which has investment funds such as Apollo and TowerBrook among its capitals and does not bid for green islands; gala Alyzia, who is not interested in serving either the green islands or the Tenerife-North airport; the joint venture formed by Greece’s Goldair and Switzerland’s AAS, which limits its offering to Gran Canaria and Tenerife South, the two jewels in the regional network’s crown; and the French Groupe Europe Handling, which also deals with Gran Canaria, Southern Tenerife and also Lanzarote-César Manrique. The Danish Aviator Airport Alliance is seeking contracts for the management of ramps at two major island airports and Fuerteventura. Finally, Peruvian Andean Airport Services Saasa is seeking a deal for the Lanzarote-César Manrique airport.

As for national companies; Globalia Handling bid for all lots Canary Islands Excluding El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma, as well as Iberia Lae Single Operator. Acciona Airport Services excluded airports on the green islands as well as North Tenerife from its bid. Binter is the only Spanish and, of course, Canarian company willing to provide services across the region’s airport network, either through Atlántica Handling or together with Menzies. The Binter-Menzies consortium will invest approximately 35 million and employ 1,500 people if it acquires the shares of five major airports.