The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the third Airport Regulation Document (DORA III) of Aena, the framework that will govern the Spanish airport network between 2027 and 2031 and which foresees an investment close to 13,000 million euros, linked to an average annual increase in rates of 0.33%.
The resolution of the Executive is closer to the proposal of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), which advocated for an annual reduction of 0.59%, than to the aspirations of Aena, which demanded an increase of 3.82% per year, while airlines pressured for a reduction of 4.9%.
In this way, five years of practically frozen rates in the network of airports will be chained, despite the expected increase in traffic, which will rise from 321 million passengers in 2025 to 358 million in 2031.
The validation of DORA III in the Council of Ministers this Tuesday allows meeting the deadline set before September 30, essential for the new framework to come into force in time and form for the next five years.
With this decision, the announcement made at the beginning of the month by the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, is consolidated, and months of technical and political negotiations on the economic balance of the airport manager are concluded.
The document establishes a rate scheme that, according to the minister himself, will keep Spain with the "most competitive airport rates in Europe".
In the press conference following the Council of Ministers, Puente emphasized the historical dimension of the investment program for air transport in Spain.
"We are facing an unprecedented investment wave that will allow us to accommodate our infrastructures to the historical record of passengers, improving the competitiveness of the economy and the mobility of citizens," he stressed.
The Minister of Transport also warned that "the seams of some airports are already very close to the limit," which makes this plan key to ensuring the proper functioning and operational capacity of the network in the coming years.
DORA III is approved in a context marked by the urgent need to adapt the Spanish airport infrastructure to the strong growth in flight demand.
To alleviate operational saturation, the investment will approach 13 billion euros between 2027 and 2031, multiplying that of the previous period with the aim of expanding and modernizing the major hubs of the network, including Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga, and Alicante.
The plan includes a forecast of an average annual growth of passenger traffic of 1.8% over the next five years.
Rates, self-financing, and regulatory balance
Among the central elements of the text is the definitive closure of the tariff scheme, which seeks to reconcile Aena's investment effort with the moderation of the final ticket cost for users.
The pricing configuration has been closely monitored by the airline sector and will be analyzed by the CNMC and the main airline associations, which will evaluate its impact on competition.
At this point, Puente has defended that "Aena's rates are the central element of the economic sustainability of the Spanish airport system" and has stated that the regulatory framework "provides valuable certainty to all actors operating in Spain, being considered one of the most demanding and best designed in the European Union."
The DORA III sets an average increase in airport fees of only 0.33% annually throughout the entire validity period.
The investment strategy will be articulated under the principle of self-financing: the airports will cover all investments with their own resources, without resorting to funds from the General State Budgets.
Of the 13 billion planned, 9.9 billion are considered regulated investment linked to airport fees.
As Puente detailed, this implies moving from an annual average of 450 million euros in the previous five-year period to more than 2 billion euros each year in the DORA III.
The rest of the investment volume will come from Aena's commercial revenues, such as rents from spaces, premises, and shops in the airports.
Destination of funds and strategic projects
The DORA III marks a change of scale compared to the previous two programs. While DORA I (2017-2021) and DORA II (2022-2026) prioritized tariff containment and the consolidation of the model after Aena's partial privatization, the new plan directs airport policy towards long-term capacity expansion, digitalization, and meeting decarbonization objectives.
By blocks, the document allocates 3.200 billion euros to maintenance and conservation of infrastructures, 2.850 billion to the improvement and expansion of passenger terminals, and more than 1.650 billion to actions related to security.
In addition, 937 million euros are allocated to airfields and runways, 660 million to intermodality projects, and 400 million to the modernization of baggage handling and transport systems.
Among the most relevant works is the integration of terminals T1, T2, and T3 of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport into a single terminal, with a new annex building for controls, as well as the expansion of T4 by 500 meters.
In the Balearic airports, new passport control areas adapted to the Entry/Exit System will be enabled, in line with the requirements of the Schengen Area.
In environmental and capacity terms, the minister has specified that no runway expansions are planned beyond what is contemplated in the current master plans.
At the same time, Aena maintains its commitment to achieve emission neutrality by 2030 through energy self-sufficiency projects with renewables.