Spanish airports operator AENA has stopped collecting rent payments from its commercial leaseholders amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, TRBusiness has been told.

Confirming a declaration by the country’s Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Schedule, an AENA spokesperson added that all airport shops with some exceptions – airside food services and press and convenience outlets providing basic items – have been obliged to shut.

Dufry Group runs duty free concessions at 25 airports in Spain and renewed its concession agreement with AENA for five years in September.

CLOSURES & ADJUSTMENTS

The developments emerge as AENA today released details of operational reconfigurations across its airports network, which are due to take place in the coming days.

These cover terminal closures to cope with the changing Covid-19 situation and its impact on passenger demand.

Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas will transfer all its operations (T1, T2, T3 and T4S) to Terminal 4 and Barcelona El-Prat will concentrate flights in zone’s A and D of Terminal 1 and close Terminal 2.

Infrastructure at airports in the Balearic and Canary Islands are being rearranged, including at Ibiza and Menorca, and operational restrictions are in force.

Palma de Mallorca will keep module’s B and D in operation, while two thirds of the terminal building at Gran Canaria Airport will shut.

On Sunday (22 March), President Pedro Sánchez decided to extend the country-wide state of emergency until 11 April, due to be approved by the Council of Ministers today (24 March).

Spain initially decreed a state of emergency on 14 March for a period lasting 15 days.

During a press briefing, he unveiled five new actions in the government’s ‘war’ against a disease that at the time of writing infected has more than 33,000 people in Spain – second only to Italy in Europe – and killed more than 2,180 (source: European Center for Disease Prevention and Control).

These include restricting all non-essential travel into the European Union for 30 days – a measure agreed by the EU-27 on 17 March.