Business

|   Business & economic news from Barcelona and Catalonia  

The Lleida-Alguaire Airport will operate flights to outside the Schengen Area this winter

CNA

British skiers are able to access the Catalan Pyrenees as of December with direct flights to Lleida Airport. The Spanish Government has authorised the arrival and departure of non-Schengen flights, coming from the likes of the United Kingdom and Russia. However, the authorisation’s delay forced a Russian tour operator to cancel the flights for this season and postpone them until next year.

December 1, 2011 10:58 PM

Barcelona is becoming an international reference point for smart cities

CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The Catalan capital is hosting the first edition of the ‘SmartCity Expo & World Congress’, which brings together more than 9,000 professionals to discuss interaction between new technologies, urban planning and citizen welfare. In addition, “the father” of electric cars in Asia, Professor Chan, stated that Barcelona has the “great potential” to become the electric car’s “open window to the world”. Last week, the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, participated in the 10th Metropolis World Congress held in Brazil, where he met with Cisco Systems Vice President to build an innovation centre focused on smart cities in the Catalan capital.

November 30, 2011 09:53 PM

Transversal agreement in Catalonia to renew the labour relations framework and foster “negotiated flexibility”

CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The Catalan Government has signed an agreement with the main trade unions and business association to foster “negotiated flexibility” within the labour market. The aim is to provide companies with a greater flexibility framework while securing jobs. The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, suggested the new Spanish Government follow Catalonia’s example of reaching an agreement with the social agents to improve the labour market.

November 29, 2011 12:30 AM

Ryanair will make a return to Reus Airport and increase activity at Girona if AENA doesn't raise taxes

CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The Catalan Government and the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair have put an end to their dispute and have announced an agreement to operate from Girona-Costa Brava and Reus for the next five years starting in April 2012. Ryanair has guaranteed that in the first twelve months more than 3 million passengers will pass through Girona Airport and 500,000 through Reus Airport. However, it has one condition: the Spanish public airport operator AENA cannot increase taxes at neither Girona nor Reus airports. If that happens the agreement will become null and void. Ten days ago, Ryanair had completely abandoned Reus. Flights through Girona had been significantly reduced in the summer and they had cut the number of flights operating in the winter months.

November 16, 2011 10:00 PM

The Barcelona International Boat Show attracts 108,000 visitors

CNA / Sara Gómez

The 50th edition of one of Europe’s most important nautical trade fairs came to an end having “exceeded” initial expectations “despite the complex economic situation”, said the show Director. The organisation has highlighted the preservation of trust in the exhibition, as the number of exhibitors only dropped by 5%. This year’s edition focused on boat innovation and engine efficiency to attract a public economically undermined by the crisis.

November 14, 2011 06:16 PM

Barcelona Airport’s Managing Board to include a majority of local members and decisions to be taken by two third majority

CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The Spanish Government decided that five members will be appointed by Catalan administrations and the business community, and four others will be nominated by the Spanish Airport Authority (AENA). However, decisions will be taken with a two third majority. It will decide on airport taxes, routes and other strategic aspects. 29.5 million passengers passed through Barcelona El Prat Airport in the first ten months of 2011, a figure already higher than that registered for all of 2010.

November 11, 2011 10:14 PM

CaixaBank has a net profit of 845 million euros for the first 9 months of 2011

CNA

The main Catalan bank allocated 1.953 billion euros for insolvencies and raised its core capital to 11.8%, 2.9 percentage points more than the ratio it had in December 2010. These operations made their net profit decrease by 16.6% compared to the previous year. Besides, CaixaBank announced that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will quit its board to rejoin that of the bank’s industrial holding ‘Criteria CaixaHolding’. Slim’s seat will be occupied by former Chairman of Citigroup and the New York Stock Exchange John S. Reed.

November 4, 2011 10:44 PM

Catalonia to have a quality certificate for real estate properties

CNA / Rafa Garrido

With this label, foreign house buyers can be 100% sure that the new bought property fulfils all the quality and town planning regulations. The Catalan Minister for Territory and Sustainability, in charge of Housing, Lluís Recoder, announced the creation of an official label recognising the “quality of real estate”, in order to offer more legal safety and guarantees to consumers. Recoder hopes this certificate will help the sector, as consumers will be in a safe framework, from a juridical point of view.

November 2, 2011 10:48 PM

Unemployment reaches 742,000 in Catalonia at the end of September, representing a rate of 19.43%

CNA

The Catalan Government considered the figures “worrying” but puts them to a “complicated” financial situation that has provoked an economic uncertainty. On Tuesday, the Government announced an action plan to reduce unemployment in the short term. In Spain, there are almost 5 million unemployed people, which represents an unemployment rate of 21.52%. Lleida has Spain’s lowest unemployment rate, set at 13.02%.

October 29, 2011 12:05 AM

Spanish banks will use their own resources to get the 26,121 million euros needed according to the new rules

CNA

The Spanish stock exchange celebrated the European Summit’s results by increasing 4.96% in a one day of trading. The main managers of the Spanish banks are convinced they will get the requested core capital with their own resources. In addition, they believe they will need 13.5 billion euros, and not 26.1 once the detailed calculations are made. Spanish financial circles consider the new rules, adopted to counteract French and German banks’ exposition to Greek sovereign debt, do not particularly benefit Spanish banks, which almost do not hold any Greek debt. In addition, as was the case with the stress tests, the criteria to analyse the bank situation ignores Spain’s proposals and imposes those benefiting German banks.

October 27, 2011 11:43 PM

Telefónica to provide Barcelona city with 4G broadband internet access in 2012

CNA

The Spanish telecommunications multinational commits to offering a 100 Mbps broadband wireless Internet connection throughout Barcelona city in 2012, which will multiply the current capacity by 14. 4G broadband is already offered in specific spots, such as trade fair venues, conference centres or at Barcelona Airport. However, its potential use throughout the city was one of the conditions for hosting the Mobile World Congress, which chose Barcelona as its organising city until 2018.

October 26, 2011 12:31 AM

Read the latest updates and breaking news on business and economic matters from Barcelona and Catalonia here. Keep up to date with how the Catalan economy is performing, inflation levels, employment and unemployment, major business mergers, important company announcements, and the latest on Catalonia’s biggest enterprises such as Vueling, Wallbox, Grifols, Mango, and plenty of start-ups and international firms based here too.