The Government approves an annual increase of airport fees of 0.33% and 13,000 million to improve the airfields.

The so-called DORA III (Airport Regulatory Document 2027‑2031) is not approved through a classic parliamentary law process, but as a regulatory instrument of the Government governed by Law 18/2014. The Cortes influence indirectly through sectoral laws (such as the Air Safety and Navigation Law or the Sustainable Mobility Law), but the DORA itself is approved by the Council of Ministers after an administrative and regulatory procedure.

1. What is DORA III and what role does Parliament play

DORA is the five-year framework that sets airport fees, investments, and quality and capacity parameters for the Aena network (for DORA III, 2027‑2031, around 12.888 billion euros of investment, according to Aena and Government documentation).

Law 18/2014 and its reform through the Air Safety and Navigation Bill (definitively approved in 2025) regulate:

• How Aena prepares the DORA proposal.
• Mandatory consultations with airlines and autonomous communities.
• The intervention of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and the CNMC (fee supervision).
• The final submission to the Council of Ministers, which approves it.

The Congress and the Senate do not vote on DORA III. Their role is:

• To approve or modify the laws that regulate the DORA framework (for example, the Air Safety and Navigation Law or the Sustainable Mobility Law, which explicitly mentions that the expansion of El Prat is outside DORA III).
• Political oversight: debates, motions, and questions about airport fees and investments.

2. Approval procedure for DORA III (according to Law 18/2014 and its reform)

From the combination of the reform of the Air Safety and Navigation Law and official Government notes, the following procedural scheme emerges:

• 1) Prior consultation with Autonomous Communities and users
  The law requires Aena to carry out:
  • A prior consultation with autonomous communities and cities with autonomy statute before drafting the DORA proposal for the next five-year period.
  • A consultation period with user associations (airlines), no later than January 1 of the last year of validity of the previous DORA.
• 2) Proposal from Aena to DGAC and CNMC
  After the consultation period, and no later than March 15 of the last year of application of the current DORA, Aena must send:
  • Its detailed DORA proposal to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
  • The corresponding documentation to the CNMC, which supervises airport fees.
  • An informative copy to the autonomous Airport Coordination Committees.
• 3) Reports and coordination bodies
  Besides DGAC and CNMC, for DORA III a bilateral body with the Basque Government has been created, which issues a non-binding report on the document (according to notes from the Ministries of Transport and Territorial Policy). This body does not alter the procedure nor grants additional executive powers.
• 4) Submission to the Council of Ministers
  The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility must submit DORA III to the Council of Ministers for final approval. Various official communications indicate that the Government plans to approve it by the end of September 2026.
• 5) Formal approval and official publication
  Once approved by the Council of Ministers, DORA III becomes the binding regulatory framework for the 2027‑2031 period. Its content is officially disseminated (usually through official Government communication and Aena itself) and serves as the basis for the annual setting of fees supervised by the CNMC.

3. Procedures remaining until its entry into force

With the available information, DORA III is already in an advanced phase:

• Consultations with airlines and other users have been opened and conducted according to Law 18/2014.
• Aena has presented its proposal with investments of 12.888 billion euros and has sent it to DGAC and CNMC.
• Consultations and reports have been carried out in bodies such as the Airport Coordination Committees and the bilateral body with the Basque Government, of a consultative nature.

According to official forecasts collected by Demócrata and other Government sources, the pending steps until its effective entry into force are:

• Formal conclusion of DGAC and CNMC reports on the final DORA III proposal.
• Submission and final approval by the Council of Ministers, scheduled for September 2026.
• Official publication of the approved framework and communication to airlines, autonomous communities, and other agents.
• Effective application of fees and investments from January 1, 2027, which is when the 2027‑2031 regulatory period to which DORA III refers begins.

In summary: DORA III follows an administrative and regulatory procedure (consultations, reports, supervision by CNMC) culminating in the Council of Ministers, while Parliament acts on the general legal framework, but does not vote on DORA itself. As of today, the core pending procedure is its formal approval by the Government and the consequent application from 2027.

The powers and functions of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility are supported by two major regulatory blocks: on one hand, the general rules on the Government and ministers (mainly Law 50/1997, of November 27, on the Government), and on the other, the royal decrees that set the basic organic structure of ministerial departments and specify the material scope of the Ministry (including Royal Decree 139/2020, of January 28, and its amendments, as well as specific development royal decrees of the former Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, adapted after the restructuring carried out by Royal Decree 829/2023, of November 20, on ministerial departments).

1. General functions of any minister (Law 50/1997)

The Government Law configures the minister as a member of the Government and head of a ministerial department. According to the text of the law:

• Own competence and responsibility: as head of their department, the minister has competence and responsibility in their specific sphere of action. That is, within their material scope, they direct Government policy and assume political and administrative responsibility for their management.
• Development of Government action: the Law expressly establishes that ministers must develop the Government's action within the scope of their Department, in accordance with the agreements of the Council of Ministers and the guidelines of the Prime Minister. They do not set the general political line alone but specify it in their sector.
• Departmental regulatory power: the Government Law grants ministers the power to exercise regulatory authority in matters pertaining to their Department. This translates into the approval of ministerial orders and other general provisions, within the limits set by the Constitution, laws, and royal decrees of the Council of Ministers.
• Execution and administrative management: it is the minister's responsibility to make the management decisions necessary to execute public policies within their scope, direct the department's administration, promote programs, plans, and projects, and supervise the management bodies dependent on the Ministry.
• Other legal competences: Law 50/1997 adds that ministers exercise any other competences assigned to them by laws, Government organization and functioning rules, and other applicable provisions, as well as, where appropriate, the countersigning of acts of the King related to matters within their competence.

2. Specific competences in transport and sustainable mobility

The material competences of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility are defined by the royal decrees on the basic organic structure of ministerial departments. Through Royal Decree 139/2020, of January 28, and its amendments (for example, Royal Decree 250/2023, of April 4, which updates it), as well as specific development royal decrees of the department, it is established that this ministry assumes the proposal and execution of Government policy in matters of:

• State-competent transport and mobility, in its various modes (road, rail, maritime, and air), regarding infrastructures and services whose ownership or competence corresponds to the State.
• Transport infrastructures of general interest, particularly strategic planning, programming, promotion, and monitoring of major networks and facilities dependent on the General State Administration.
• Sustainable mobility, understood as the design and implementation of policies integrating environmental criteria, energy efficiency, and emission reduction in transport systems, as well as promoting digitalization and modernization of the sector.
• Transport safety, insofar as the organic structure regulations assign this Ministry responsibility for regulation, supervision, and control of operational and technical safety of the various modes of transport under state competence.

In practice, this means the minister directs the drafting of draft laws and royal decree projects in these areas, presents the department's normative and strategic initiatives to the Council of Ministers, and executes Government agreements adopted in transport and mobility matters.

3. Relations with attached bodies and entities

The basic organic structure royal decrees and the Ministry's development decrees also determine which public bodies, entities, and institutional public sector bodies are attached to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility. Although the details of each entity are set in those specific rules, the general scheme is that:

• The minister exercises oversight or strategic direction over the attached bodies and entities, setting general objectives and approving, where appropriate, plans and guidelines.
• Proposes to the Council of Ministers, when required by their statutes or legislation, the appointments and dismissals of the main officials of these bodies.
• Supervises compliance with program contracts, action plans, and financing frameworks that bind these entities to the General State Administration.
• Promotes coordination between the Ministry's senior and management bodies and dependent entities to ensure coherence of transport and sustainable mobility policy.

In summary, according to Spanish legislation, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility combines the general functions of any minister (sectoral political direction, regulatory power, responsibility over their department) with specific competences over state transport policy, sustainable mobility, and transport infrastructures and services of general interest, as well as the direction and oversight of the set of bodies and entities that develop that policy in the administrative and operational scope.

Aena can finance a very substantial part of its investments through airport fees as long as it respects the economic regulatory framework set out in Law 18/2014, the current DORA, and the deindexation and supervision regulations (Law 2/2015, Royal Decree 55/2017, and CNMC Law 3/2013, among others). This framework defines which costs and investments are recognized in the regulated base and, therefore, can be recovered via fees, while also setting strict limits on maximum income per passenger.

1. Key regulatory framework

• Law 18/2014, on urgent measures for growth, competitiveness, and efficiency (BOE-A-2014-10517): defines Aena's airport network as a service of general economic interest, regulates airport fees, and creates the five-year Airport Regulatory Document (DORA), which sets:
  • The maximum annual income per passenger (IMAP) and the adjusted maximum annual income per passenger (IMAAJ).
  • The investment regime, the Regulated Asset Base (BAR), and quality and capacity standards.
  • Rules on transparency, user consultation, and fee supervision.
• DORA approval resolutions (for example, DORA 2017‑2021 and DORA 2022‑2026: BOE-A-2017-2052 and BOE-A-2021-15917): specify, for each five-year period, the recognized investments and the tariff path.
• Law 2/2015, on deindexation of the Spanish economy (BOE-A-2015-3443) and Royal Decree 55/2017: establish how regulated monetary values, including fees, can be periodically revised, avoiding automatic indexations to general price indices.
• Royal Decree 162/2019, on the P index for updating airport fees (BOE-A-2019-5331): develops the formula for the P component which, together with the X component provided in Annex VIII of Law 18/2014, updates the IMAP according to the evolution of specific costs under principles of efficiency and good business management.
• Law 3/2013, creating the CNMC (BOE-A-2013-5940), as amended: assigns the CNMC specific functions regarding airport fees, including reporting on DORA, supervising Aena's consultation procedure, and controlling that fee updates comply with the IMAAJ.
• Law 21/2003, on Air Safety: is the law creating the public patrimonial benefits that constitute airport fees; Law 18/2014 refers to it to respect the legal reserve in their creation.

2. Recognition of investments in the regulated base

Law 18/2014 provides that regulated airport revenues can only recognize efficient, objective, and non-discriminatory costs. DORA details:

• The investment categories that make up the Regulated Asset Base (BAR) (land, airfield, terminals, security, air navigation systems, maintenance, intermodality, and environment, etc.) and the annual value of investments incorporated into the BAR each year.
• The operating and capital costs that serve as the basis for calculating the IMAP, including BAR amortization and cost of capital, following economic efficiency criteria (Annex VIII of Law 18/2014).
• A regime of “investment deviations” and specific reports on the degree of execution of investments planned in DORA; these reports condition subsequent IMAAJ adjustments and may lead to incentives or penalties.

In summary, for Aena to finance an investment exclusively with fees, that investment must:

• Be foreseen and quantified in the corresponding DORA.
• Be incorporable into the BAR, meeting the efficiency, necessity, capacity, service quality, and increasingly environmental criteria set by Law 18/2014 and DORA itself.
• Respect that the IMAP calculation does not include income, expenses, or investments from international expansion or other non-regulated activities.

3. Limits to financing via fees and role of the General State Budgets

The economic ceiling for financing investments via fees is given by:

• The IMAP set in DORA for each year, determined from recognized regulated costs (operating and capital) and updated with the X component (controllable and predictable costs) and the P component (variation of exogenous costs, according to Royal Decree 162/2019 and Law 2/2015).
• The IMAAJ, which adjusts the IMAP for quality incentives and penalties and investment compliance, as well as investment deviations; Aena must set its fees so that average income per passenger does not exceed this level.
• The transparency and consultation procedure with representative user associations, defined in Law 18/2014, and the supervision by the CNMC, which can declare a fee modification inapplicable if it does not comply with DORA or IMAAJ.

The General State Budgets are not, in principle, necessary to finance investments regulated and recognized in DORA, since their costs are recovered through public patrimonial benefits (fees) within the IMAAJ limit. The involvement of the General State Budgets becomes relevant when:

• Additional investments are to be made that cannot be recognized in the BAR without violating efficiency criteria or income caps.
• It is decided to politically subsidize certain infrastructures or services (for reasons of territorial cohesion or others) without fully passing their cost on to fees.
• Capitalization decisions, fund contributions, or transfers to Enaire/Aena are made that exceed the purely tariff framework.

In summary, Aena can design an investment plan financed exclusively with fees as long as such investments are recognizable in the BAR, comply with the efficiency and public service criteria of Law 18/2014, and remain within the IMAP/IMAAJ limits set in DORA, under the supervision of MITMA and CNMC. When an investment does not fit within that regulated framework or the tariff impact is to be alleviated, the natural route becomes budgetary financing.