ENAIRE managed 181,037 flights across Spain in October, 6.4% more

Air traffic grows in all control centres: Seville (9.3%), the Canary Islands (8.6%), Madrid (7.2%), Barcelona (6.3%) and Palma (4.5%)

ENAIRE, the main supplier of air navigation services in Spain and the 4th in Europe, has managed 181,037 flights in October, that is, 6.4% more (10,839 flights more) than in September of last year.

It is now 49 months of uninterrupted air traffic growth.

Out of the total of flights registered in October, 110,508 have been international flights (+4.8%); 34,049 national flights (+9.9%); and 36,480 overflights (do not arrive at or depart from a Spanish airport), that is, 8.1% more.

Air traffic continues to grow strongly in all ENAIRE's Control Centres: Seville (+9.3% and 34,814 flights), the Canary Islands (+8.6% and 28,903), Madrid (+7.2% and 97,990), Barcelona (+6.3% and 84,060) and Palma (+4.5% and 29,706).

Cumulative data for 2017

From January to October, ENAIRE has managed already 1,714,336 flights, which represent a 6.7% increase (106,951 additional flights) with respect to the first 10 months of 2016. Therefore, Spain is still growing well above the European average, which has increased its air traffic by 4.2% in the same period.

Out of these flights, 1,036,713 have been international flights (+7.1%); 327,320 national flights (+3.8%); and 350,303 overflights (+8%).

Pending the count for the last two months of the year, the cumulative traffic has grown in all control centres too: Seville (+8.9% and 324,695 flights), the Canary Islands (+7.8% and 270,384), Madrid (+8% and 922,327), Barcelona (+5.7% and 805,457) and Palma (+5.6% and 289,361).

236 air traffic controller positions approved

With the aim of meeting the staffing requirements of air traffic controllers for the upcoming years, by using as a reference the growth of air traffic and the challenges posed by the Single European Sky and technological modernisation, ENAIRE's Strategic Plan (Flight Plan 2020) includes the roadmap to follow during the 2017-2020 period.

236 air traffic controller positions have been approved between 2015 and 2017.

The current call for new air traffic controller positions continues open up to the 24th of this month after having received the required authorisation to contract 130 air traffic controllers on a permanent basis: 99 places in this call, 15 places taken from the reserve pool of candidates set up in the previous call (May 2016) and a maximum number of 16 positions for controllers on leave of absence requesting to be reinstated.

These 130 air traffic controller positions, added to the 106 offered in 2016, make a total of 236 positions opened in the last two years.

As of August 2018, ENAIRE has added 107 new controllers to its staff, 70 of them will be fully operational in control towers and centres on this date and, the rest, at the end of 2018.

With these incorporations, we expect a wider age pyramid base and a rejuvenation of the staff. To this is added the upgrading of the working positions of the air controllers as part of ENAIRE's commitment to the control service's excellence and innovation. This action is part of the Flight Plan 2020, which will entail a total investment of 300 million euro.

About ENAIRE

The public corporate entity ENAIRE is a company designated by the Ministry of Public Works to manage the fourth largest airspace in Europe in terms of traffic through 5 control centres, 22 control towers and a network of air traffic infrastructure and equipment. At 2017 year-end, the air traffic managed by ENAIRE is expected to serve over 250 million passengers in 2 million flights.