Aena reiterates that the management of the airports is "exclusively" its

MadridTransfer, co-management, coordination... These are some of the words used when referring to the demand from some parties –ERC or the PNV– and regional governments regarding the role of the autonomous communities in the Spanish airport system. In particular, in those airports located in their territories. Aena, the airport operator in the State, is clear about it: no transfer, and "co-management", meaning participation in management, is an "impossible" demand. Aena, in which the State controls 51% of the share capital through Enaire, only opens up to deepening "coordination" with the territories.

Aena responded hours later to Maurici Lucena this ThursdayThis past Wednesday, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, assured that an agreement will soon be reached with ERC for Catalonia to participate in airport management. "It will be quite immediate," Illa said during the plenary session. It should be recalled that within the framework of Illa's investiture, the Republicans and Socialists agreed on a change in the "governance" of El Prat airport so that the Generalitat has more say. The president of the ERC group in the Parliament, Josep Maria Jové, insisted yesterday, Wednesday, that this is one of the "decisive points of this legislature." "The Generalitat must have weight and must lead," stated Jové.

However, other demands are added to the Catalan one, such as the Basque one. Recently, Imanol Pradales' government also announced an agreement with Pedro Sánchez's executive for the Basque Country to begin to "participate in decision-making" affecting Basque airports. Aena responded hours later, Maurici Lucena this Thursday. In fact, the Ministry of Transport indicated in a press release that the agreement was limited to the creation of a bilateral airport body between the Basque and Spanish governments to "collaborate and cooperate" regarding the strategy of airports in the Basque Country. This body, however, has no executive functions and its decisions are not binding. It is this framework that Lucena defended this Thursday.

"I am aware that this issue causes concern among shareholders," said Lucena, who this Thursday was re-elected president of the company for another four years. The Catalan executive recalled that 49% of airport infrastructures, regardless of their location, are in private hands. This is, for Aena, one of the key elements for which a transfer or greater participation in management by the autonomous communities of state airports are "impossible" issues. Added to the shareholder structure is a regulatory framework that "makes any operation that alters Aena's management autonomy impossible," said Lucena.