Iberia Airport Services has submitted a bid to Spanish operator Aena for the handling licenses at 41 airports.

The overall proposal, which involved Iberia Airport Services making individual bids for 37 airports and four as part of a joint venture, was audited by Cap Gemini, and added up to 3GB of information. The four joint venture bids were for Seville, Valencia, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote airports.

Iberia developed a personalised proposal for each of the 41 airports. More than 50 people from the Iberia Airport Services team, but also from areas such as human resources, sustainability, transformation and legal, have worked for months on the different proposals, the airline said.

"Thanks to everyone's efforts, we have submitted bids that we are convinced are the most competitive to continue investing in all of Iberia’s people who work in this business, and to continue keeping it within Iberia,” said José Luis de Luna, director of airport services.

According to Iberia, the bids were developed mainly on the basis of sustainability, innovation and costs. The airline has committed to a significant investment in equipment renewal, in addition to more than 30 other measures to improve waste management, increase the use of renewable energy, and promote a culture of sustainability among its employees.

Iberia Airport Services is already a pioneer in Spain in the digitisation of its operations, focusing on coordination and decision making in real time. In the coming years, it will develop an ambitious transformation programme with more than 60 initiatives based on biometrics, telemetry, and data analysis, among others, which will allow it to improve its efficiency and services to its customers.

Iberia recently reached an agreement with the main unions on the XXII Collective Agreement for Ground Staff, which affects 8,000 Iberia Airport Services employees, and which allows it to participate in these handling tenders with a cost basis and the measures to improve productivity in terms of planning shifts and schedules necessary to maintain their competitiveness.

Image: Iberia Airport Services