The city, which is currently chairing the Innpulso network, has been invited to work jointly with 47 Spanish municipalities to boost growth and quality employment.

The Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness has invited Barcelona City Council and the other Spanish municipalities in the Innpulso network to sign a protocol of accession to the State Innovation Strategy (E2I). 
Through joint work, this project aims to place Spain in 9th position in the world innovation ranking, and thus contribute to changing the current production model and boost growth and quality employment.

The initiative includes measures such as innovative public purchase and the attraction of talent, proposals in line with the priorities for economic reactivation established in the framework of the Barcelona Creixement Round Table.

A network that promotes innovation in local authorities

The Innpulso network, launched by the General Secretary of Innovation of the Ministry of Economy, is made up of 47 Spanish municipalities and is aimed at recognising and encouraging innovative and scientific actions carried out by local authorities and promoting collaboration between them. 

After receiving the distinction of City of Science and Innovation 2011, Barcelona is currently presiding this network.

 

Source: Barcelona City Council

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

 

Admittedly or not, it is clear that most of the big name LCCs today have adopted some level of connection potential to their networks. It is too significant a revenue stream to be ignored, and implementing a such system - specially internationally - is quite easy. Just schedule the majority of your westbound flights to operate during one half of the day and the eastbound flights during the other half. And you've easily got a basic connectivity potential.

This emerging trend is rapidly closing the ever minimizing gap between full service and low cost carriers.

The connectivity certainly increases the revenue potential for any LCC - and not going to a large scale connectivity oriented hub structure means that they could still keep the costs low. Technological improvements have added the ability of booking connectivity pairs to most reservation systems. The end result is that not only has the connectivy business become more lucrative, but quite easy to implement too.

The lower prices of a LCC connection makes it a better option to the price-conscious traveler; even if there is an extra step of booking two city pairs seperately.

This has opened more chances for those LCCs wishing to move upmarket, and the higher yields will only make that choice more attractive to many. The hybrid-ization of the LCC is not going to stop anytime soon. And the gap between the LCC and the FSC is fast closing.

 

Source: Flightglobal.com

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

 

Barcelona generates 38% of Spanish exports by air, but only 14% of Spanish air cargo passes through its airport

Barcelona is the origin of 38% of air Spanish exports, but its airport receives only 14% of air traffic in the state. Barcelona has a clear opportunity to increase its air cargo, especially on Asian routes, which represent 45% of Spanish traffic. These are some of the details of the latest edition of the Barcelona Air Traffic Observatory, produced quarterly by GPA (Gestió i Promoció Aeroportuària S.A.) a company owned by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, which was presented to the Barcelona-Catalonia Logistics Centre (BCL) Air Cargo Committee at the workshop held on Tuesday 28 February.

To increase traffic, the BCL Air Cargo Committee proposes, among other actions, that Barcelona Airport captures traffic from the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion, which is poorly served at present. The airport has a great potential to become a logistics hub for air cargo: the current growth of the southern regions of France; the situation of Barcelona at the intersection of  the Mediterranean and Ebro corridors; its proximity to the Port of Barcelona; and the role of Catalonia as first region in exports in Spain (26% of total exports). The long-haul air routes from Barcelona created in recent years have helped improve access to new markets and logistic hubs directly, but there is still much room for further increasing cargo in Barcelona.

In Spain, 670,000 tons were transported by air freight in 2011. The market is concentrated in 4 major airports: Madrid (59%), Barcelona (14%), Zaragoza (7%) and Vitoria (5%). The main markets for Spanish exports are Asia - Pacific (28%), South America (24%) and North America (20%).

Barcelona transported 100,000 tons in the hold during the last year, a decrease of 7.4% over 2010. However, considering the cargo truck (cargo that counts as air freight but which travels by road, generally short distances - up to 1,000km), air freight in Barcelona rose 9% in 2011. The effect seen is an increase in freight transported by cargo truck at the expense of hold cargo. The main destination airports for air exports out of Barcelona are American, Asian and the Middle East. Barcelona does not have direct passenger or cargo flights to most of its Asian destinations.

In 2011 Barcelona increased its total traffic (due to export growth), but there was a transfer from pure cargo flights (aircraft that only carry goods) to passenger aircraft, and, especially, to cargo trucks. Therefore, Barcelona is acting as a feeder to other cargo airports.

 

The air freight mode
Air freight is a specialist transport sector (0.1% of the global burden) that exploits the time factor (speed) to obtain a niche in the logistics industry. Around 50 million tons of cargo is transported by plane all over the world every year. The air freight mode includes both cargo transported in the hold of aircraft, and cargo trucks.

Europe represents 19% of air freight in the world. It is a highly concentrated market, where the major airports (Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and Heathrow) carry 45% of the total cargo. Barcelona is 27th in the European air ranking.

 

Air Cargo Committee

These data were presented yesterday to the BCL Air Cargo Committee led by GPA (Gestió i Promoció Aeroportuària S.A.), a company belonging to the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. The committee’s workshop brought together over 30 representatives of companies and organizations involved in air cargo in Barcelona. The activities of this task force link with the efforts of the Barcelona Air Route Development Committee (BARDC) in developing long-haul routes out of Barcelona Airport.

The Air Cargo Committee approved a draft proposal of the Commercial Action Plan to improve air cargo in Barcelona. This plan is to be based on a systematic analysis of data available concerning air cargo, to detect points to improve local services and opportunities for creating new air cargo links, which will position Barcelona Airport as a benchmark centre for Southern Europe.

 

Source: BCL and Barcelona Chamber of Commerce

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced global traffic results for January showing a 5.7% rise in passenger demand but an 8.0% decline in air freight compared to the same month in 2011. The occurrence of Chinese New Year in January (rather than in February as in 2011) exaggerated the increase in passenger demand and the fall in air freight. Stripping this out, the underlying trend was for stronger passenger growth, while stabilized weakness in cargo markets continues.

“The year started with some hopeful news on business confidence. It appears that freight markets have stabilized, albeit at weak levels. And this is having a positive impact on business-related travel. However, airlines face two big risks: rising oil prices and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Both are hanging over the industry’s fortunes like the sword of Damocles,” said IATA’s Director General and CEO Tony Tyler.

 

International Passenger Markets

International air travel rose 5.5% in January year over year, while capacity climbed 4.2%, resulting in a load factor of 76.6%, up from 75.7% in January 2011.

Asia-Pacific airlines saw their traffic rise 6% in January compared to 2011. Capacity climbed 6.4% and load factor dipped slightly to 77.5%. Year on year traffic growth would have been softer were it not for the Chinese New Year boost.

European carriers experienced a 5.3% gain in traffic versus January 2011. The persisting economic weakness of the region resulted in a considerable drop from the 9.5% growth recorded in December despite the attractiveness of the weak Euro to tourist traffic and export activity. The average load factor strengthened to 75.7% on a 2.7% rise in capacity year over year; however, the load factor is among the lowest of the continents.

North American airlines had a 0.3% dip in passenger traffic, but capacity dropped 0.9%, pushing load factor up fractionally to 77.6%. Next to African carriers, the passenger demand was the weakest performance.

Middle East airlines recorded double-digit traffic growth in January, posting a 14.5% increase. This was by far the largest rate of growth for any region and represents a return to the rates experienced in 2010. Capacity rose 10.6%. Load factor climbed 2.7 points to 78.5%, among the highest of the regions.

Latin American carriers continued to enjoy robust passenger demand. Traffic rose 7.9% in January compared to the same month last year, while capacity increased 7.4%. At 79.9%, the region’s carriers had the strongest load factor.

African airlines reported a 3.6% decline in demand and a 0.8% decline in capacity, with a load factor of 64.8%, the lowest load factor among the regions. Although sub-Saharan economies are showing strong economic growth, African airlines are finding it difficult to capitalize on the trend.

 

Domestic Passenger Markets

Domestic markets outperformed international markets in aggregate as strong demand in Brazil, China and India helped to push domestic traffic up 6.1% compared to January 2011.

The impact of Chinese New Year-related traffic was evidenced in China’s domestic market, which surged 16.8% year over year on a 14.3% lift in capacity, pushing load factor to 80.8%, the highest recorded for domestic traffic. On a seasonally adjusted basis, traffic rose 3.2% compared to December. The Chinese market now accounts for more than 21% of the total global domestic market.

US January domestic traffic was nearly flat at 0.2%, but capacity contracted 1.5%, pushing load factor to 78.1%.

Japan’s traffic was 8.9% below previous year levels, slightly more than the 8.3% contraction in capacity. Year to year comparisons are affected by the impact of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami as well as industry restructuring.

Brazil’s airlines saw a 10.5% rise in demand while capacity climbed 14.8%.  Load factor was 74.9%, down 2.9 points from January 2011.

India traffic rose 8.8% year over year, while capacity expanded 12.8% and load factor was 74.9%. Demand rose 0.9% compared to December.

 

Air Freight (Domestic and International)

The decline in air freight markets ended in the 2011 fourth quarter.  The January contraction largely was owing to the Chinese New Year and resulted in international demand falling 8.1% while domestic markets dropped 7%. 

Asia-Pacific and European airlines bore the brunt of the international decline, down 14% and 9.6% respectively compared to January 2011. In addition to the impact of the holiday, the peripheral economies in Europe have been in recession and attracting little inbound freight. Until recently this had been offset by strong outbound traffic flows from Northern European economies. 

Middle Eastern carriers enjoyed a 9.4% rise in demand, the healthiest performance among the regions. North American airlines’ demand dropped 4.0%. Latin American carriers’ traffic climbed 2.2% while African carriers saw a 3.7% decline compared to the year-ago period.

 

Source: IATA press release

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

 

 

The Spanish association of footwear component companies, AEC, reported a 6.53% increase in exports last year, amounting to € 262 million in turnover from foreign markets, mainly Europe, which represents 70% of the industry´s foreign trade.

Global turnover, including domestic and foreign sales, amounted to € 635 million, a slight increase over the € 615 million registered in 2010.

Source: Spain Business

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

-This represents a rise of 161.5% compared to a typical week

-Airport sales rose 33% compared to a normal week

-Taxi rides from the airport increased 50%

-Full occupancy of rooms at the Business Centre during last week

Barcelona- El Prat airport registered 285 private flights from 24 February to 2 March because of the Mobile World Congress 2012 held last week at the Fira de Barcelona. This figure represents an increase of 161.5% compared to a normal week in February and 5.2% more than the Mobile World Congress 2011.

 

Commercial

During the celebration of the MWC 2012, Barcelona- El Prat airport increased its sales by 33% compared to a normal week in 2012.

The best sellers were local cuisine such as cava, wine, nougat and cured meats. Sales of electronic products such as mobile handsets and chargers also stood out.

 

Services

In the days of congress, there were 54,160 taxi rides from the airport - both T1 and T2 - representing an increase of 50% compared to a routine week. Likewise, there were requests for 3,145 services for luxury vehicles, which were provided an exclusive area in the public car park.

Concerning information requests, the busiest day was Sunday February 26, with 8,482 questions recorded, 71% more than a usual day. Most of them related to transportation to the city and tourist information.

 

Quality services

The increased activity during the MWC 2011 was also noticeable in the Barcelona-El Prat airport Business Centre, which recorded full occupancy of its Air Rooms throughout last week.

VIP lounges reached 3,700 daily users and the VIP Fast Pass - which offers personalized passenger assistance – multiplied, amounting to almost a hundred people. Finally, the VIP car park had a 30% increase in hired services.

 

Source: AENA

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

 

Global economic growth slowed considerably in the final quarters of 2011 due to the weaker growth in Europe (contraction in the fourth quarter) and in emerging economies. However, the reasons for the slowdown in the two areas could hardly be more different. Whereas Europe suffered from persistent financial stress given the lack of any meaningful progress in resolving the crisis, emerging economies performance is the result of, among other reasons, more restrictive policies designed to prevent over-heating.

Looking ahead, global growth should pick up in the second half of 2012, led by emerging economies as their domestic policies become more accommodative for growth in domestic demand. Meanwhile, although the US is likely to grow slower than during previous recoveries, it should significantly outpace Europe, which looks set to see GDP contract by 0.5% in 2012 and a slow recovery in 2013. We would point out that these forecasts depend on a relatively quick solution to the debt crisis and a considerable reduction in financial stress so as to prevent a larger impact on growth. The gap between core and peripheral growth rates should remain large, in part due to sharp fiscal adjustment and deleveraging in peripheral countries.

Risks are still on the downside, awaiting European policies that reduce uncertainties

Although some progress has been made since October, a definitive resolution to the European crisis requires more decisive action on three fronts. First, concerns surrounding Greece’s solvency must be cleared up in an orderly fashion and as quickly as possible, with an agreement with private sector bondholders. At the same time, the mechanisms created to prevent contagion in countries that are solvent, but faced with liquidity problems, must be increased and made more flexible to become more effective. Second, structural reforms that stimulate growth must be introduced, including reforms to make financial institutions stronger without triggering sudden deleveraging and restricting credit. And third, the governance agreements approved recently in the Eurozone must begin working so they can provide a clear roadmap to fiscal union, strengthen monetary union, prevent future crises and enhance the credibility of European institutions and countries.

As the improvement in governance becomes evident, Europe’s institutions should focus on reducing structural deficits and not nominal, or current, deficits without adjusting for the economic cycle, in order to avoid fiscal policies more pro-cyclical than strictly necessary, with the negative consequences on growth; and, also, to boost that adjustment measures will be structural.

Spain back in recession again

In addition to correcting its economic imbalances, Spain has seen confidence erode, export growth fall, expectations of deeper fiscal adjustment in 2012 because of the failure to meet 2011 budget targets, weaker activity and, above all, a deterioration in employment in the fourth quarter last year. Estimates for 2011 show average GDP growth of 0.7%.

Confirmation of increased uncertainty bodes for a worsening in key fundamentals for the Spanish economy. On the one hand, access to financing looks likely to remain tight and expensive because of Europe’s financial debt and banking crisis. Meanwhile, the increase in risk premiums, coupled with more ambitious fiscal plans than considered a year ago and also the slowdown in international trade, has dimmed growth prospects for Europe, which is likely to result in weaker demand for Spanish exports. On the domestic front, the main change stems from the deviation from the budget deficit target. While all this means a sharp cut to economic growth forecasts for Spain, there are some mitigating factors. For instance, the ECB’s monetary (and liquidity) policy is more prone to supporting demand and financial stability than expected three months ago. This, together with an increase in the growth differential between Europe and the rest of the world, should cause a weaker euro, which could speed up competitiveness gains for exporters.

Forecasts point towards a 1.3% contraction of GDP in 2012, and a slow recovery in 2013, which could come faster if the announced structural reforms are ambitious enough

In short, GDP looks set to contract in 2012, and if current circumstances remain, the recovery will be slow. The outlook could change if ambitious structural policies are adopted swiftly and decisively. If they are implemented properly, the adjustment would be less painful (especially in terms of employment), paving the way for a faster and stronger recovery.

The deviation from the 2011 budget deficit target undermined the credibility of all public administrations. Therefore, it is even more urgent now to adopt measures that make up for the shortfall in 2011, that guarantee that targets are actually reached this year, that implement effective control mechanisms on autonomous communities (the main culprits), and, in short, that restore the credibility of public accounts in general.

In this respect, the government’s response has been firm and well received, but it is still not enough to ensure that this year’s target will be met. Turning to the Social Security, its reliance on job creation to generate income and its inflexible spending make it unlikely that this year’s targets will be achieved.

With the Budget Stability Organic Law, Spain is acting ahead of the enforcement of the Stability Pact to be signed by 25 European countries at the next meeting

Regarding the medium-term commitment to stability in public finances and control over the autonomous communities, the Draft Organic Law on Budget Stability sends a clear and firm message to the rest of the European partners. Spain is one of the first countries to adopt this type of legislation and, in principle, it will do so with a broad political consensus. The Draft Law contains several proposals defended in this publication, such as the definition of fiscal target in the structural deficit, the generalisation of a fiscal rule at all levels of public administrations or more transparent reporting for a correct assessment of fiscal policies. It also promotes practical and credible instruments for encouraging compliance with these rules. However, the approach to be used for defining the stage of the economic cycle has not yet been made public. A clear, simply method that can be reproduced easily and assessed externally is also a necessary condition for the reform to achieve the desired level of success. Moreover, it must state explicitly that the deficit target must be established in structural terms and there must not be any confusion regarding the conditions for speeding up the debt reduction process so that fiscal policy does not lead to pro-cyclical actions that could cause imbalances.

The new labour market reform should prevent that the adjustment in 2012 concentrates on job destruction again

Because of the rigidities facing companies and workers to changing their working conditions, the adjustment to the Spanish labour market between 2007 and 2009 focused on employment rather than on the number of hours worked. That’s why the commitment to internal flexibility mechanisms and the call for wage moderation and productivity-linked remuneration (included in the agreement on employment and collective bargaining in 2012-2014) are a step in the right direction, but not enough. The new labour reform must drive internal flexibility as an alternative to job destruction. With an unemployment rate approaching 23%, Spain’s labour market requires particularly determined measures. To be precise, safeguard clauses should be removed to prevent temporary increases in prices from being passed on to wages and generating an inflationary spiral through second-wave effects. In addition, the current structure of collective bargaining must be updated and the system of wage opt-out clauses must be made more flexible. Therefore, the government must make brave proposals that go beyond what has been agreed until now by the trade unions and employers and that prevent the expected economic slowdown in 2012 from causing employment to plummet.

Spanish financial system: a positive restructuring that must be finished

The economy minister announced last 2nd of February a Restructuring Plan for the Spanish financial system. New measures mean an advance because impose a bigger effort in real state portfolios reorganization and use more realistic hypothesis in assets valuation. These requirements, which are more demanding to entities, will have a large o short impact in the sector configuration depending on how they will be applied. Other positive aspect of the Plan is that minimize public support, which performance will be limited to contingent capital injections, with market remunerations, in the entities that can’t increase their provisions on their own.

The current restructuring in order to be a success is important that in its implementation be a priority reach a more efficient financial system, well managed, with sustainable results and be financed in capital markets, all of this require a less fragmentation. For this, after specify unviable entities, is necessary to give them a definitive solution; given incentives to adequate mergers and acquisitions based on strict economic efficiency criteria. Besides, the installed capacity adjustment has to be speeding up, both in offices and staff. Finally, is a must build the foundations to flow the credit to productive activities, in a way that the necessary deleveraging doesn’t prevent sectors and enterprises with good future perspectives be financed.

Source: BBVA research

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

Barcelona recorded the greatest increase in overnight stays among European cities in 2011, 15%.

This is reflected in the report drawn up by European Cities Marketing (ECM), based on an analysis of 57 cities representing the different countries in the European Union. All in all overnight stays rose 6.2% in the case of domestic stays and 7% for international stays.

The top cities are London, Paris and Rome but in terms of growth, the first place is for Barcelona, followed by Madrid, whose overnight stays grew 11%. The following places that also reflect a clear boost are Prague, Berlin and Vienna, with 9.4%, 8.7% and 8.2%, respectively.

Russia and China, the source markets with most growth.

The nationality with the highest number of hotel customers sleeping in Europe was The United States, which amounted to 17.3 million overnight stays. Germany, Italy and The United Kingdom were the next sources in terms of importance.

Nevertheless, the greatest growth came from Russia and China, with 33.3% and 21.7%, respectively. Between the two markets, they totalled 7.7 million overnight stays.

 

Source: Hosteltur

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

Congress tourism continued to grow, for the second consecutive year, during 2011 in Barcelona, confirming a positive trend which started in 2010 according to Barcelona Tourism.

The number of professional meetings held in the Catalan capital last year rose 6.8% with respect to figures for 2010, according to the Barcelona Convention Bureau (BCB), the meeting tourism programme of Barcelona Tourism.

The number of delegates that met in the Catalan capital in 2011 rose by 5% with respect to 2010, reaching 647,693, who attended 2,283 meetings. Of all the delegates, over 80% were foreigners.

Unlike 2010, in 2011 conventions or incentives were not the sort of meetings on the rise, but rather conferences and courses, which grew by 67.3% over the previous year. This subsector had 64,612 delegates, almost 50% more than the year before.

All the events of this type held in Barcelona last year left 2,523,937 overnight stays, 2.6% more than in 2010.

 

Source: Hosteltur

 

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Barcelona Air Route Development Committee promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights.

 

The vice president of sales for Seat, Paul Sevin, plans to focus their strategy for international expansion towards the Chinese market during this year, although they will continue to develop their commercial network in Russia, a market which will be targeted more specifically next year.

At a meeting during the 82 edition of the International Motor Show in Geneva, Sevin declared that the intention of Seat is to present its brand outside Spain emphasizing quality characteristics similar to Volkswagen, but with Spanish DNA.

Nevertheless, Sevin indicated that the firm with its headquarters in Martorell (Baix Llobregat) does not expect to carry out large international expansion in several markets in the short term, but rather has decided to commit to concentrating on "large markets" such as China and Russia. In Russia they are establishing their network of car showrooms, which will increase from 10 in 2011 to 25 in 2012, whereas they will close the year with 15 showrooms in the Chinese market.

"We shall continue in Mexico and in the Mediterranean Area, but we see a greater potential for growth in Russia and China, which are the future of Seat", he declared, while pointing out that it is not possible to do everything at the same time if you want to achieve your aim. Regarding Europe, he indicated that the strategy focuses on markets such as Spain, France and Germany.

In order to achieve their goals, Sevin added that Seat is immersed in a product offensive through which new models such as the new Ibiza will be launched in April, the five-door Mii (in May), as well as the Toledo (October) and the León, which will arrive at the end of this year.