Kick AENA

GET AENA OUT OF OUR AIRPORTS

Aena operates as a monstrous multinational corporation —with 11,000 direct employees in Spain alone, commercially operating 48 airports in Spain and 34 in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica and England under various arrangements, including wholly owned airports, concessions and joint ventures— following the sale of a 49% stake by Mariano Rajoy’s PP government in 2015, and serves as an instrument of economic and territorial colonisation.

Aena treats the institutions and civil society of the Balearic Islands —whether in Ibiza, Formentera, Menorca or Mallorca— as mere passive spectators, with no real say in the design and management of our airports, our economic model, or the kind of country we want to build. This is despite the fact that Palma Airport is the third busiest airport in Spain in terms of passenger numbers, yet it is one of the lowest-rated by users because of the high number of incidents, intense operational pressure, overcrowding, the chaos caused by endless construction works, leaks and flooding at the slightest rainfall, etc.

The colonial exploitation practised by the Spanish State through Aena has devastating consequences, as we set out below:

1) WE NOTE THAT the relationship between Aena and the social, economic and political fabric of the Balearic Islands has become one of the most complex, conflict-ridden and explosive in the country.

2) WE NOTE THAT Aena’s partial privatisation in 2015 has had catastrophic consequences since it has placed an essential public service for any island in the hands of a group of unscrupulous foreign investment funds that prioritise dividends over the rights, needs and quality of life of islanders.

3) WE NOTE THAT the political representatives of the PP and PSOE in the Balearic Islands (Marga Prohens, Llorenç Galmés, Francina Armengol, Rosario Sánchez…) put on a tough front when they are in Mallorca, but turn meek and compliant when they travel to the metropolis and come face to face with their party leaders, the highest representatives of the Spanish State and Aena executives, instead of defending the interests of the colonies like lions and lionesses. Moreover, the politicians mentioned above have failed to make their voices heard and assert their presence on the CDRA (Air Route Development Committee), created in 2011 with the mission of designing the commercial policy of each airport, guiding and prioritising the types of air traffic we want to attract, where it should come from, and what types of aircraft should be used, etc., always from a local, island-specific perspective.

4) WE NOTE THAT, unlike in mainland Spain, for the people of the Balearic Islands and of any island, the airport is not simply another transport option, but a strategic and vital infrastructure, an essential lifeline that keeps us connected to and between the islands and to the continent. For this reason, it is intolerable that resident users who have to go to the airport out of sheer necessity have to pay abusive rates typical of an Aena Board of Directors that deserves no other description than “usurious”, simply for leaving a vehicle in the car park or for picking up or dropping off a family member. Aena’s sick obsession with raising revenue is utterly repulsive, as demonstrated by its reduction of free parking in the Arrivals and Departures waiting areas to the current 10-minute limit, even though billions of euros extracted from Balearic taxpayers have been used to pay for thousands of kilometres of high-speed rail (AVE) on mainland Spain.

5) WE NOTE THAT the Balearic Islands are one of the regions that contribute the most to Aena’s “common pot” as a result of the exorbitant prices it imposes, and that the huge profits generated are used to cover the losses of airports without sufficient passenger demand (Huesca-Pirineos, Albacete, Córdoba, Burgos, Logroño-Agoncillo, León, Salamanca, Badajoz, Pamplona…), since most of these regions have high-speed rail networks (AVE), while none of the Balearic Islands has even a single kilometre of high-speed rail infrastructure. That said, it is outrageous that the Federal Republic of Germany, with a population of 84 million, has some 35–40 airports with commercial flights, while the Kingdom of Spain, with a population of just 49 million, squanders economic resources and European funding by having 48 airports controlled by Aena, plus several more that are not.

6) WE NOTE THAT taxi drivers in the Balearic Islands accuse Aena of granting preferential treatment to private multinationals such as Uber, which are given the best parking spaces at the terminals in exchange for hefty commercial fees that are unaffordable for any public service or local private company.

7) WE NOTE THAT Discretionary Transport companies (bus operators) and VTC operators repeatedly complain about the obstacles imposed by Aena in the design of passenger pick-up and drop-off lanes, as well as the introduction of new fees and the constant increases in existing ones.

8) WE NOTE THAT Aena, through a policy of exorbitant prices, has driven out small and medium-sized car rental companies in Mallorca and that on levels 0, 1 and 2 of the Son Sant Joan car park, there are now only multinational companies from outside the island and from abroad such as Sixt, Record Go, Europcar, Avis, Budget, Hertz, Goldcar and OK Mobility, companies that take all the profits they generate off the island and, at the beginning of the tourist season, bring in thousands upon thousands of cars that end up congesting the islands’ roads and degrading the quality of life of both residents and visitors.

9) WE NOTE THAT small local businesses and restaurateurs have been virtually driven out of Aena’s airports because of its policy of creating huge terminals with commercial areas covering thousands of square metres, located between the security checkpoints and the entrances to the boarding gates. Apart from being a major inconvenience and a nightmare for users who are not tourists, this policy represents a very significant flow of money that goes directly to Madrid and leaves nothing behind in the islands. All shops, franchises, car rental companies, bars, restaurants, kiosks, car parks, duty free stores, pharmacies, transport companies… are forced to pay Aena astronomical rent or commercial fees to occupy a space within the airport. And what is more, all that money goes to the metropolis, since Aena’s parent company has its headquarters in the metropolis, where it declares its profits, pays its taxes and distributes its substantial dividends to foreign shareholders.

10) WE NOTE THAT, faced with the influx of millions upon millions of tourists who break the previous year’s record every year, Aena does not increase its workforce proportionally. If we add to this outsourcing and the resulting downward pressure on wages imposed to save expenses, the result is an excessive workload during peak hours, precarious working conditions and discontent among workers in cleaning, runway maintenance, baggage handling and private security, who find themselves overwhelmed and forced to work under intense pressure.

11) WE NOTE THAT Aena—as if it did not already have enough battlefronts open across the Balearic Islands and the entire State—has also angered the airlines, which are forced to pay high fees that increased by 6.44% in 2026, with a projected annual rise of 3.8% for the 2027–2031 period. These hikes are meant to finance its neocolonial expansion across America, Europe, and the US, in addition to the construction of the new Air Traffic Control Centre in Marratxí (Son Bonet) and the expansion of the airports of Ibiza, Barcelona and Barajas, among others—all budgeted at nearly 13 billion euros through 2031. This represents a new imposition by the foreign investment funds mentioned in the BACKGROUND section; absolute parasites demanding new investments—funded, naturally, through the over-exploitation of airlines and users who are held captive by Aena’s monopoly. The airlines maintain a fierce and unanimous opposition (IAG: British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus, Level, Ryanair; and the industry association ALA: Air Europa, EasyJet, Jet2, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Emirates, DHL Aviation / EAT Leipzig, etc.) against the financial plans of Maurici Lucena and these bloodsucking foreign investment funds that want to guarantee the protection of their dividends at all costs. The legal battle is fierce and has been further ignited by the CNMC’s proposal to reduce the planned 3.8% annual fee increase down to 0.50%.

12) AND FINALLY, WE NOTE THAT the case of Son Bonet Airport, although a separate issue, is yet another demonstration of the arrogance and contempt that Aena displays towards the citizens of the overseas colonies. It is unacceptable that its Chairman, Maurici Lucena, acts like a tame puppet, fails to put the foreign investment fund, BlackRock, which holds a mere 5.04% of the company’s shares, in its place, and refuses to abandon plans to build a mega solar farm on one of the few remaining green areas in the municipality.

The case of Son Bonet Airport has become a banner and a symbol of resistance against the arrogance of Aena’s top executives who, led by Maurici Lucena and backed by foreign investment funds, repeatedly demonstrate that they will not listen to reason. They ignore the residents of Son Bonet, the Marratxí Town Council, civil society, and the majority of citizens in the Balearic Islands; they equally dismiss the demands of our Parliament and the petitions of the Balearic Government. Consequently, and as a result of everything set out in this Manifesto, they show us that the only way forward left to us is to make an appeal and a call to kick Aena out of our airports. From the Sovereign Assembly of Mallorca (ASM), we can say it louder, but not clearer:

AENA OUT OF OUR AIRPORTS!

DECOLONISATION AND INDEPENDENCE!

Background

In 1990, the Spanish Government led by Felipe González (PSOE) passed Law 4/1990 to establish an autonomous business management model for the airport sector and, in 1991, created the public entity Aena (Spanish Airports and Air Navigation) to unify airport construction, maintenance and air navigation control under a single brand.

In 2014, the Spanish Government led by Mariano Rajoy (PP) created the entity ENAIRE, which retains exclusive control over air navigation and air traffic throughout the State and became the owner of the brand Aena SA, which remained focused on the commercial operation of airports.

In 2015, the Rajoy Government (PP) privatised and floated 49% of Aena on the stock exchange, while the remaining 51% was kept under public control through ENAIRE. Aena thus became part of Spain’s benchmark stock market index, the IBEX-35 and began an internationalisation process, which, according to data from January 2025, has led it to control the commercial operation of 48 airports in Spain and 34 abroad under various arrangements (wholly owned, concessions, joint ventures, etc.); 17 airports in Brazil (Recife, Maceió, Aracaju, João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Juazeiro do Norte, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campo Grande, Uberlândia, Santarém, Marabá, Montes Claros, Carajás, Altamira, Uberaba, Corumbá and Ponta Porã); 12 in Mexico (Guadalajara, Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Hermosillo, León/Bajío, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali, La Paz, Los Mochis and Manzanillo); 2 in Colombia (Cartagena de Indias and Cali); 2 in Jamaica (Montego Bay and Kingston); and 1 in the United Kingdom (London Luton).

The three PP figures who organised and spearheaded the grand scheme behind the privatisation of 49% of Aena were: Ana Pastor (Minister of Public Works), Rafael Catalá Polo (Secretary of State for Infrastructure), Luis de Guindos (Minister of Economy and Competitiveness, who had already played a decisive role in the dismantling of the savings banks in favour of the major IBEX-35 banks), and José Manuel Vargas, appointed Chairman of Aena in 2012 by Rajoy, who entrusted him with the mission of paving the way for the sale through highly aggressive and traumatic restructuring measures. Aena’s main private shareholders, recruited by Rafael Catalá, included the US investment funds BlackRock (4.05%), the UK-based asset management firm Veritas Asset Management LLP (3.78%), the British investment fund TCI Fund Management (2.84%) led by Christopher Hohn, The Goldman Sachs Group (2.82%), Vanguard Group, iShares, etc.

Following the 2015 privatisation, Mallorca’s main gateway came under even greater control by outsiders than it had been before as the major foreign investment funds today, mainly American and British, are the ones calling the shots and imposing their draconian conditions on Aena’s Board of Directors, even though the Spanish State still holds a majority 51% stake. The airports of the Balearic Islands — Son Sant Joan and Son Bonet in Mallorca, Menorca Airport and Es Codolar in Ibiza — were subjected to Aena’s absolute colonial rule prior to the 2015 privatisation; now, thanks to the PP and the complicity of the PSOE, they are in an even worse position, left at the mercy of foreign predators and sharks operating from behind the desks of their offices in New York and London.

As stated, the 2015 privatisation was the work and machination of the Rajoy Government. However, when Pedro Sánchez became President of the Government of Spain in 2018 following a vote of no confidence, he replaced Aena’s CEO, Jaime García-Legaz (Murcia, 1968), who had been appointed by the PP and had previously served as Secretary-General of the FAES Foundation and had, in turn, replaced José Manuel Vargas Gómez (Madrid, 1970), with former PSC-PSOE MP Maurici Lucena Betriu (Barcelona, 1975). Yet, the way Aena was run and managed did not change. On the contrary, Lucena’s eight years as Chairman have served to prove that the PP and PSOE fully agree that Spanish airports must be managed according to the following four criteria:

1. Aena must remain faithful to the traditional concept of what a company should be and to the patterns of Spain as it has always been, in other words, it must be ultra-centralist, pyramidal, nostalgic for imperial glories in the style of FAES, more inclined towards rigid protocols rather than innovation, etc.

2. The “common pot” system must be maintained so that the overexploitation of large, profitable terminals (Barcelona, Palma, Málaga, Las Palmas, Tenerife South, Alicante, Ibiza…) not only cross-subsidises the loss-making airports across the State, but also backs Aena’s pharaonic and neocolonial ventures in Brazil, Jamaica, Colombia, Mexico, the United Kingdom…

3. The Aena brand model must be further developed; that is, airports must be transformed into macro-terminals embedded within vast shopping centres packed with perfume, clothing and shoe shops, all kinds of alcoholic beverages, duty-free shops, bars, restaurants, ice cream parlours, car parks, along with hotels, meeting rooms, and even nightclubs, as is already intended for Ibiza.

4. Outsourcing, privatization and downward subcontracting of auxiliary services (healthcare, cleaning…), private security, runway maintenance, handling workers (baggage), ground handling services and the liberalisation of control towers, etc. must be intensified.