Aena will have to lower the rent to commercial premises (shops and restaurants) that are at the airports he manages, as they demanded these operators, after Congress voted on Thursday, with the support of the majority of parliamentary groups, an initiative in favor of this rebate.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the businesses located on the aerodromes claimed that the airport manager coping them according to air traffic, which is now well below normal by the health crisis. This reduction in the rents will mean a reduction in the revenues of the airport manager of 1,500 million euros, according to AENA calculations, which includes the exemptions that have already applied to shops in this computation.
The Plenary of Congress has voted in favor of this rebate, after last week the Senate approved an amendment to adapt these rents to air traffic, which already had the vote against the PSOE. The Government Party has run out of sufficient support to avoid approval. All parliamentary groups have been shown in favor of this initiative, except we can, which has been abstained. The PSOE has not supported it and has argued that imposing a reduction of rents since Parliament will generate legal insecurity.
The lease that Aena has with these operators is complex. The commercial premises of the airports have very different conditions at those of a shopping center or a store at the foot of the street, then, under normal conditions, sales are greater than those of a normal business. That is why, the rents are also much higher.
These businesses pay Aena a guaranteed minimum income, which has a variable part, which depends on sales, and another fixed. It is now going to be reduced "in direct proportion to the lower volume of passengers with respect to the volume of passengers that existed in 2019 in that concrete airport," according to ionforma Aena in a relevant fact referred to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV ).
This reduction in the guaranteed annual minimum income will be applicable in 2020 and in all the subsequent years "until the annual volume of passengers from the airport is equal to the 2019".
Commercial operators have been demanding that payments adapt to the current traffic. Aena negotiated with shops the exemption of payment during the first state of alarm and a downgrade in the subsequent months, but this was not accepted by all businesses. It is above all of restoration spaces that belong, in some cases, to multinationals.
Different associations of merchants and restorers had requested the support for this amendment. Among them were Hospitality of Spain, restoration and foment brands of the Treball Naál. They claim that not adjusting the rents to air traffic would cause the closure of the vast majority of companies that operate at their airports.
Last June, Congress unanimously approved in its Finance Commission a non-legislative initiative, at the proposal of Republican Esquerra, to demand "balanced agreements" with businesses located at airports.
Date Of Update: 23 September 2021, 12:38
