According to the latest figures published by the Spanish Association of Airlines (ALA), companies have scheduled a combined total of 787,000 operations for the current peak season. If these plans are fulfilled, that would be 114% more than exactly one year ago when only 367,000 connections with the country were operated (although the definitive figure may vary, depending among other factors on the pace of the vaccine rollout and the easing of restrictions on air travel).

Although the summer recovery of the air transport sector is still likely to be below 2019 levels, at IBAS we always prepare for the season ahead by reviewing, modifying, updating and introducing actions that will allow us to manage our operations efficiently and safely for everyone involved, in line with the requirements and recommendations of the national and international authorities, all of which we compile in a Recovery Plan.

This year our Recovery Plan aims to anticipate and mitigate all the effects derived from the pandemic, which has now been with us for more than a year. We prioritise continuous training and internal communication to ensure that our employees remain abreast of new procedures, health requirements, and changes in check-in, boarding, loading and unloading processes. This year we have trained our staff to be more versatile in light of the volume of requirements from our customer airlines and the infrastructures of the different airports, which have also had to adapt to the circumstances.

We are in constant contact with our customers to try and anticipate their activity and resize our workforce since some of our employees are still on furlough. However, we rotate our staff to distribute the economic burden evenly and maintain leave periods up-to-date.

We are reactivating and servicing most of our ground equipment to ensure that it is in optimal condition to cope with the anticipated increase in activity. This is also the case with all the other necessary equipment, such as ULD, nets…

We have maintained our level of quality and have even conducted on-site audits thanks to the implementation of our Health and Safety Plan. Now one year old and constantly updated, as certified by Applus, the plan includes antigen tests for our employees, the distribution of face masks and hand sanitiser, the installation of anti-covid air purifiers in common areas, the introduction of remote working, and every other measure to guarantee the safety of our employees, customers and providers.