International and domestic airlines are demanding a sharp cut in Spanish airport charges, accusing the country’s main airport operator of pocketing billions in excess profits from passengers and carriers over nearly a decade.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Spanish Airline Association (ALA) have jointly called on regulators to implement an annual reduction of 4.9% excluding inflation in airport charges across Spain over the five-year period from 2027 to 2031.
The demand, published Wednesday on IATA’s website, places the industry on a collision course with AENA, the state-controlled airport operator that manages dozens of airports across Spain, including the country’s busiest hub at Madrid-Barajas.
At the heart of the dispute is a striking figure: between 2017 and 2025, excluding the two pandemic-affected years when air travel collapsed globally, AENA collected an estimated €1.3 billion in excess regulated returns.
Airlines argue this surplus was not the result of improved efficiency or superior service, but rather systematic underestimates of passenger traffic that allowed the operator to charge more than it should have.
The numbers make for uncomfortable reading for regulators. Under Spain’s regulatory framework known as DORA I and DORA II — actual passenger numbers ran an average of 15.3% higher than official forecasts during the period in question. Because airport charges are calibrated in part against projected traffic volumes, the gap between forecast and reality translated directly into overpayments by airlines — costs that were ultimately passed on to passengers through higher ticket prices.
The problem reached a particularly acute level in 2024, when regulated returns hit 10.2%, a full four percentage points above the planned level. That single year alone cost airlines and passengers close to €400 million in excess charges, according to the IATA report.
Against that backdrop, the airlines’ frustration appears to have boiled over when AENA responded to reform discussions not with proposals for reductions, but with a request for a 3.8% annual ‘increase’ in charges for the 2027–2031 regulatory period. Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Europe, did not mince his words.
“Absurd,” he said of the proposal, warning that approving such an increase would leave Spain with the highest regulated return among all major European airports — an outcome he argued would undermine Spain’s attractiveness as an aviation hub, stifle inbound investment, and ultimately cost jobs in a sector that underpins a significant share of the country’s tourism-dependent economy.
The airlines are at pains to stress that their proposed reduction is not a demand for financial hardship to be imposed on the airport operator. Independent studies cited by IATA and ALA project that passenger traffic could grow by approximately 3.6% annually over the coming regulatory period — nearly three times AENA’s own conservative forecast of 1.3%.
If the projection holds, AENA could sustain a 6.35% return on capital while simultaneously funding an ambitious €10 billion infrastructure investment plan, the same investment program the operator has cited as justification for maintaining — or raising — charges.
“The proposed reduction is compatible with maintaining a nearly €10 billion airport investment plan,” Schvartzman said, framing the charge cuts not as a threat to Spain’s airport infrastructure, but as a course correction that would restore fairness and help position the country as a competitive gateway to Europe.
Spain’s dispute with its airport operator, while significant, is far from an isolated case. Across the Atlantic and down the African continent, the question of airport charges and aviation levies is proving equally contentious, with passengers in some of the world’s least wealthy regions bearing some of the heaviest per-ticket burdens.
The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) reported that West African passengers paid among the highest air ticket taxes and charges on the continent in 2024. Nigeria stood out as a particularly stark example, ranking third for international and regional departure costs, with passengers paying an average of $180 per ticket — a figure that places air travel well beyond the reach of most of the population in a country where the median income remains critically low.
There are some tentative signs of relief, however. The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) recently agreed to reduce cargo port charges at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport from ₦20 to ₦15 per kilogram, following sustained pressure from freight and logistics stakeholders.
The adjustment, while modest, is intended to help fund critical infrastructure upgrades — including apron rehabilitation, enhanced security systems, and digital overhauls — without crushing an industry already operating on thin margins.
Yet even as cargo operators in Lagos welcomed that concession, passengers faced a fresh financial blow. Nigeria introduced an $11.50 Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS) security levy in December 2025, pushing total security charges per ticket to $31.50.
Authorities justified the levy as necessary to fund border control improvements and passenger data processing systems, though critics question whether the burden falls disproportionately on ordinary travellers rather than the institutions that stand to benefit from the upgrades.
The juxtaposition of events in Spain and Nigeria underscores a fundamental tension playing out across global aviation: airports, increasingly run as commercial enterprises, are under pressure to generate returns for shareholders and fund infrastructure, while airlines and consumer advocates argue that the accumulation of excess profits and levies is quietly making air travel less accessible.
Whether regulators in Madrid — or Abuja — will ultimately side with passengers remains an open question. But the intensity of the pushback from airlines suggests the fight over who bears the true cost of flying is far from over.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Airlines and passengers on both sides of the globe are being made to foot the bill for airport operators’ miscalculations and profit windfalls. In Spain, AENA quietly pocketed €1.3 billion in excess returns over nearly a decade by underestimating passenger traffic — and is now asking for even higher charges.
IATA and Spanish airlines are pushing back hard, demanding a 4.9% annual reduction that would correct past overcharges without derailing a €10 billion infrastructure plan. The core message is simple: airports should not be allowed to profit from their own forecasting errors at passengers’ expense.
Until regulators hold operators accountable to accurate, fair pricing models, travellers — whether in Madrid or Lagos — will keep subsidising inefficiency through their ticket prices.
