Enrique Maurer is taking over for Ángel Luis Arias as the CEO of ENAIRE

The current Director of Air Navigation Services, Enrique Maurer, will take over for Ángel Luis Arias as ENAIRE's CEO on 10 June.

At its meeting on Wednesday at the Madrid-Torrejón de Ardoz Control Centre, ENAIRE's Governing Board endorsed a natural succession that guarantees continuity in the strategic policies adopted by Spain's air navigation services provider, as laid out in the public entity's 2025 Flight Plan. Not surprisingly, Maurer has been "number two" at the Company since his appointment in 2017 as the Director of Air Navigation Services. 

With the appointment of Enrique Maurer as ENAIRE's new CEO, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda (MITMA) is once again endorsing a highly technical individual as the head of a company that provides critical services and infrastructures for the State.

Nine years after ENAIRE was established, and eight years after being appointed CEO, Ángel Luis Arias personally decided to leave the after achieving the goals he set when he established ENAIRE, and overcoming the greatest aviation crisis, during which the state operator contributed decisively to the recovery of the aviation sector, having emerged from the crisis with zero debt and some of the lowest air navigation charges in Europe

Over all these years, ENAIRE has profoundly transformed and modernised its businesses, boosting investment in technology and innovation and increasing its workforce to become one of Europe's air navigation leaders thanks to a service and work ethic that are highly renowned globally for their safety, quality, efficiency, innovation and sustainability.

Also noteworthy is the signing of a new collective agreement with air controllers after 24 years with no agreements between the company and trade unions, thus achieving peace and unity amongst the entire team of ENAIRE professionals.

Under Ángel Luis Arias's leadership, safety and sustainability in the management of flights were prioritised, as was the quality of its services, all as part of the organisation's successive strategic plans, the 2020 Flight Plan and the 2025 Flight Plan, which also provided the impetus for the recovery of domestic air transport following the Covid-19 crisis. As a result, ENAIRE and CRIDA, its research, development and innovation subsidiary, received the 2021 CANSO Global Air Safety Award at the 2022 World ATM Congress, along with congratulations from the European Network Manager (EUROCONTROL) for the quality of its services in the first year of record traffic (2022) following the pandemic.

ENAIRE has also been the European leader in the efficiency of its Safety Management System since 2019, achieving and maintaining the highest possible result since 2020 (100%).

ENAIRE's hitherto CEO will be the new permanent representative of Spain to the ICAO Council in Montreal, replacing Víctor Aguado.

Enrique Maurer

The new CEO, Enrique Maurer, has a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and completed the General Management Programme at IESE.

He started his career at Dragados y Construcciones in 1993, in the field of the structural calculations, and then went to DHL España to manage industrial plant processes. He then joined Aena's Navaid Department in October 1994, managing various projects to implement new air navigation systems as head of the Air Navigation Office in the Barajas Plan.

In 2001, he went on to manage Aena's Satellite Navigation Certification Department, where he led the implementation and deployment of the infrastructure for the EGNOS system in Spain, and was responsible for the project of the first GBAS precision instrument approach facility installed in Spain, and the second in Europe, at the Málaga-Costa del Sol airport, in close cooperation with the FAA of the USA.

Then, in April 2004, he took over as manager of Aena's Verification and Infrastructures Division, leading highly unique projects for what was then Aena, and spearheading the first verification flights with International Flight Verification Units, before being appointed to lead the Aena Operations Department in 2008, which encompassed all the responsibility for the technical operation and verification of air navigation and aviation information management systems.

From 2012 to April 2017, he was the manager of the Systems Department at Aena (which became ENAIRE), which merged the entire operations branch with the systems area in a single comprehensive department that oversaw the engineering and technical operation of the communications, navigation and surveillance systems, information/digitisation systems, and all the systems associated with the air traffic management (ATM) system. From this position, he went on to his current job as Director of Air Navigation Services in April 2017, already at ENAIRE after the creation of the new state-owned Public Entity.

He was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ITEC European Systems Alliance in 2018 and 2021, where he is currently a member of the Board of Directors.

He is currently a designated national member of the Board of Directors of the European Network Manager (EUROCONTROL).

Over his career at the various units of what is now ENAIRE, he has been a member of the EAD Group Company, the head of several EUROCONTROL Strategy Groups, and a designated national member of ICAO Panels (AWOG and Air Navigation Panel).

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 46 airports receive ENAIRE's communication, navigation and surveillance services, and 21 airports, including the country's busiest, rely on its aerodrome control services.

ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager and participates in the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE, as the agency appointed by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to implement the U-space system in Spain, will be the provider of the Common Information Services (CIS), which are essential for administering U-space services to drones and Urban Air Mobility, in interaction with local air traffic control services, so that all types of aircraft can fly safely in the same airspace.

ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator. It has also been awarded the EFQM 500 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.