Gran Canaria and Tenerife South airports to charge for baggage trolleys

Gran Canaria and Tenerife South airports are to follow Barajas Airport which has begun installing machines to charge passengers one euro for the use of luggage carts as part of an initiative which AENA hopes will save €3.2 million per year. AENA claims it has “no date” for the implementation of the payment for the use of baggage trolleys at Barajas airport, which will become the first of the seven airports where the company intends to implement this new system.

The airports that will charge for the use of trolleys will be at Madrid – Barajas, Barcelona – El Prat, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South and Alicante. AENA has gone on to say that the new system only apply the so-called “public area” of the airports, as the boarding area will remain free of charge. AENA went on to say that this new model of management and maintenance of baggage trolleys is part of the measures put in place to “add value to the company in order to make it sustainable and economically viable while maintaining the supply of a quality service.”

According to AENA’s calculations, the Barajas airport currently spends €3.7 million per year to the “management and maintenance of luggage trolleys” and with this new work model this amount will be reduced to €500,000 which means an estimated cost savings of €3.2 million.

AENA management has said that the price of €1 to use the trolley is similar to that of other European facilities, such as the German airports of Munich, Hahn, Cologne and Dusseldorf, the Italian airports of Milan, Genoa, Turin and Rome (Fiumicino) and in Athens in Greece.