Source: Iberia

  • It bids individually for 37 airports and in another four it will do so in a joint venture, to maximise its chances of winning all the tenders
  • It submits a personalised bid at each aiport, which has been developed focusing, above all, on sustainability, innovation and costs, in line with the requirements of AENA specifications
  • Iberia Airport Services bids for these licenses after an agreement was reached last Thursday on the XXII Ground Personnel Collective Agreement, which affects more than 8,000 Iberia airport personnel

Iberia Airport Services submitted to AENA the bids to obtain handling licenses in 41 Spanish airports. In 37 of them it will compete alone and in the other four it will do so in a joint venture. These are Seville, Valencia, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote, where it currently does not have a handling license, and where the airline adopted this formula to maximise its options to provide services to third parties in the 41 airports in question.

1,000 Files, 337 Folders, 3GB

For each of the airports, Iberia Airport Services has designed completely personalised offers that have been audited by Cap Gemini, a prestigious consultancy firm specialising in airport services. All these proposals are collected in more than 1,000 files, 337 folders and three gigabytes of information that were electronically submitted to AENA yesterday.

More than 50 people from the Iberia Airport Services team, but also from other areas of the airline, such as human resources, sustainability, transformation and legal, among others, have worked for months on the different proposals to enter these contests, which represent a major challenge for Iberia’s airport business in the coming years.

According to José Luis de Luna, Director of Airport Services, “Thanks to everyone’s efforts, we have submitted bids that we are convinced are the most competitive to continue investing in all of Iberia’s people who work in this business, and to continue keeping it within Iberia.”

People, Sustainability, and Innovation

For the renewal of its third-party handling licenses, Iberia Airport Services faces the most complex and competitive tender that AENA has published to date, due to the high number of companies that have shown interest in the process and also to the demanding requirements that have been established in the specifications (more than 350 pages of requirements and annexes on operational and airport security, environmental and sustainability requirements, technical and economic solvency, etc.), which equals a million-dollar investment.

To respond to these requirements, Iberia Airport Services submitted a personalised bid for each of the 41 airports, developed mainly on the basis of sustainability, innovation and costs.

  • Sustainability: Iberia Airport Services’ commitment is in line with the airline’s sustainability strategy and, in order to obtain these licences, it included in its bids a significant investment in equipment renewal, and over 30 other measures to improve waste management, increase the use of renewable energy, and promote a culture of sustainability among its employees.
  • Innovation: Iberia Airport Services is already a pioneer in Spain in the digitisation of its operations, focusing on coordination and decision-making in real time. In the coming years, it will develop an ambitious transformation programme with more than 60 initiatives based on biometrics, telemetry, and data analysis, among others, which will allow it to improve its efficiency and services to its customers.
  • Costs: last Thursday, Iberia reached an agreement with the main unions on the XXII Collective Agreement for Ground Staff, which affects 8,000 Iberia Airport Services employees, and which allows it to participate in these handling tenders with a cost basis and the measures to improve productivity in terms of planning shifts and schedules necessary to maintain their competitiveness.

​More than 150 Clients

In addition, when preparing these bids, Iberia Airport Services leveraged the trust of the more than 150 customer airlines to which it provides services in 29 Spanish airports, and which make it the leading handling provider in Spain, with more than 100 million passengers served each year.