MADRID has been picked as the venue for the International Air Transport Association (IATA)'s largest global delivery centre, responsible for managing €125 billion in flight tickets.
The centre in the Spanish capital will have 330 employees of 60 nationalities at its largest global delivery centre, managing travel across 110 countries across Africa, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and central Asia for 280 airlines which are IATA-registered.
About 300 billion airline tickets are handled at IATA's Spanish global delivery centre.
Madrid was selected in 2008 to host the regional European office, and since then, its staff numbers have never ceased to rise – at present, around 260 employees from 58 countries are on the payroll, all experts in various areas of aviation operations including airports, cargo, air security, flight management and finances.
Regional deputy chairman for IATA Europe, Rafael Schvartzman, says Madrid has been chosen to house the global delivery centre because of the European centre's 'very high level of efficiency' and the fact that the city is 'open and multi-cultural', giving the company 'direct access to talent and quality'.
Singapore, Montréal and Beijing have also been chosen to house sub-branches of the head office, but the base in Madrid will be the largest in terms of geographical areas covered and numbers of employees.
Minister for public works Íñigo de la Serna says Madrid's success in the IATA bid is 'excellent news' for Spain as a whole, as it will 'contribute to the significant investment effort and tourism market leadership' of the country.
In the same communication, De la Serna revealed that the State-run airports governing body AENA ended 2017 with a record number of air passengers – 249.2 million in total – beating figures for 2016 by a clear 8.2%.
“Spain has such extraordinary aeronautical, rail, road and port infrastructure that, for the second consecutive year, the Davos Economic Forum has named the country as the world's most competitive tourism market,” De la Serna concludes.
