Aena has launched a new public tender for ground handling services to third parties at the César Manrique Airport in Lanzarote. This is the largest ramp handling tender in the world, which aims to renew the two existing licenses on the island for a period of seven years.
The tender procedures began in 2021 and, after the mandatory period of external consultations and the incorporation of various comments and proposals to the draft specifications, Aena initiated a second extraordinary period of consultations with the sector. Once the tender is resolved, the airlines will contract the services of the handling agents that are awarded the contract.
This tender for assistance services includes, among other tasks, baggage assistance, assistance to operations on the runway and assistance to cargo and mail with regard to its physical handling between the airport terminal and the aircraft. Fuel assistance services are excluded from this process, which are tendered in another process.
In addition, it is important to mention that this is not an isolated situation, but that this operator selection process extends to the entire national territory, with 41 license renewals for 43 airports and the two heliports in the network, grouped into 21 lots.
Specifically, the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga-Costa del Sol and Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airports will renew their three licenses. Meanwhile, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Valencia, Ibiza, Seville, César Manrique-Lanzarote, Bilbao, Tenerife North-Ciudad de La Laguna, Fuerteventura and Menorca will continue to have two licenses each. The remaining airports are grouped into three lots that involve three licenses, to which must be added the one for the Ceuta and Algeciras heliports and the two cargo licenses for the Zaragoza and Vitoria airports.
Tender News
Among the main novelties of the tender, Aena has introduced sustainability criteria that the new agents must meet, such as having a maximum age of equipment (10 years for planters and 12 for the rest), having a minimum percentage of sustainable vehicles and equipment (which would increase annually from the current 23% to 78% in 2030) and electric (which would increase annually from the current 23% to 49% in 2030), as well as promoting the shared use of equipment (operational efficiency).
Agents may improve the percentages of sustainable and electric fleet through their offer and reduce the maximum age required by up to three years. In addition, the tender focuses on the digitization of the data involved in the service, both from Aena and from airlines and the handling agent itself, as well as on telemetry and geolocation solutions for equipment.
With regard to human resources, as a novelty, the specifications incorporate the figure of the handling incident coordinator. Its functions include responding in real time to problems reported by passengers, such as late baggage deliveries, loss or deterioration of suitcases, incidents in check-in and boarding, etc. Training will also be valued, as well as the implementation of measures that improve the safety and health of workers before the end of the first year of the license.
It should be remembered that ground handling services generate a volume of employment in Spain of 22,000 workers, according to the Association of Airport Ground Handling Service Companies (ASEATA). In 2019, the turnover of ramp handling services was 690 million euros.