• RAQUEL VILLAÉCIJA

    Madrid

  • JUAN C. SÁNCHEZ

    @_JuanCsanchez_

    (Graphics)

Updated Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - 12:00

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During the first wave of the pandemic, when all of Europe was confined and borders closed, airlines converted their commercial aircraft into cargo aircraft.

Instead of passengers, the seats in the booths carried medicines, masks or e-commerce material.

Many airports today enter more for having parked planes than for flying them.

Others

rent their spaces as offices, advise aerodromes in other countries or have become logistics centers from where they send luxury items,

since their offer is wide and they have duty-free shops.

It is their way of getting out of crises such as Covid, «to which the aviation sector is particularly sensitive, since they considerably reduce passenger traffic, which generates more than 60% of airport revenues.

For this reason, it is

essential that airfield operators re-evaluate their business models,

”says Pablo Escutia, partner at Kearney.

This consulting firm has carried out a study that analyzes the current situation of airports and

the need to transform their current business model

so that it is resistant to crises like the present one.

The report reveals

the heavy dependence on passenger traffic.

Only in Spain, at the airports in the Aena network, this has plummeted 70% so far this year.

As a consequence, the airport manager has lost 107 million euros until September, compared to 559 million in profit for the same period of 2019. They assume that they will close the year with losses.

Globally, it is estimated that more than 2 billion passengers will be lost

, which means that the majority of airport operators will see their revenues fall by half.

The sector does not expect a recovery in pre-pandemic traffic until 2023 or 2024.

To diversify

“The airport and non-airport business has to be balanced, but they will always depend on passenger traffic.

Now we are in a period of transition, but it is clear that the composition of the traffic, its dynamics, will change, and we must look for alternative ways to weather the crisis and be prepared for subsequent ones, ”says Escutia, who points out three diversification alternatives : real estate assets (the rental of commercial spaces), air cargo and consulting services, among others.

In the first case,

"these real estate assets can generate value, but they must adjust to the characteristics of the profile of each airport:

type of traffic, location, connectivity and the real estate environment," he points out.

Delhi International Airport has rented properties: offices, shopping centers and industrial premises.

Airbus, for example, has leased spaces so that the aerospace group can launch the first complete flight simulator.

Changi International Airport has developed a 135,000 square meter entertainment complex, with 280 outlets, gaming attractions, accommodation facilities and the largest indoor garden in Singapore.

The

Aéroports de Paris (ADP) group, which manages the Charles de Gaulle, offers technical-commercial consulting services

in airport

planning,

engineering and design.

It has assisted the one in Bangkok in the design of runways, the one in South Korea to better manage their capacity and the one in Jordan in a baggage management system.

The Munich airport operator organizes airport visits and charges 14 euros for a 90-minute visit inside an Airbus 380.

Others are in charge of developing and operating airports in other geographies

or have almost become online platforms.

Aena, according to Escutia, is one of the managers "with the greatest potential in the aforementioned areas to diversify activities."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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