Live News From Spain As It Happens

SPAIN'S president Pedro Sánchez has announced plans to expand Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport with a budget of €2.4 billion – the largest investment in aviation infrastructure in the country in more than a decade.

Once complete, the revamp will allow the nation's biggest airport to transport up to 90 million passengers a year by 2031 – the equivalent of nearly double the population of Spain.

There is no suggestion of a fifth terminal being added to Barajas – which was renamed after the first post-dictatorship democratically-elected president of Spain, Adolfo Suárez, who died from Alzheimer's in March 2014.

Madrid's Terminal 4, or T4, opened in February 2006, and the metro line connecting it to the city centre was launched in May 2007.

But even with no T5 on the cards, Sánchez said the plans would bring 'triple benefits' to the capital and, to a certain extent, Spain as a whole: 'Dramatic growth' in 'space and route capacity'; 'thousands of direct and indirect jobs', and 'generate wealth'.

Spain's largest two aviation hubs – Barcelona-El Prat and Madrid Barajas-Adolfo Suárez - are the gateway to Latin America from Europe, with frequent direct flights to the 19 Spanish-speaking countries south of the US-Mexican border, meaning travellers to the region from elsewhere on the continent will almost certainly have to take connecting flights to and from either the Spanish capital or second-largest city.

As well as 'reinforcing' Spain's 'leadership' in European-Latin American travel, Sánchez's government wants to create and develop a similar hub with Asia, offering new, largely direct routes and operating as a base for airlines focusing on the eastern continent.

Describing the plans during a press conference at Madrid's international tourism trade fair, FITUR, which ends on Sunday evening, Spain's president stressed that the works would be structured so as to 'respect the environment'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

GERMAN supermarket chain Aldi has announced a major expansion plan for Spain in 2024, with its distribution centre in Sagunto (Valencia province) set to open next month and a another one on the cards for the north.

Along with this hub in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos province), at least another 50 stores will open nationwide – the bulk of them in Aldi's existing strongholds in popular coastal areas.

Other stores are planned for northern Spain and the Canary Islands in a bid to 'offer more households the option of quality, simple shopping at the best possible price', according to Chief Executive Officer Valentín Lumbreras.

To this end, new branches will be set up this year in the Basque Country, Galicia, Cantabria and Castilla y León, as well as the Canaries, and the existing network of stores heavily concentrated in the Comunidad Valenciana, Catalunya and Madrid will be reinforced.

Over half the company's planned expansion for 2024 is focused on these three regions, home to Spain's three largest cities – Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, in that order.

Aldi has already started to grow its presence in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, in the Balearic Islands, and the south-eastern region of Murcia, and will continue to do so as the year progresses, Lumbreras reveals.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EVERY January in Spain sees the start of a new tax year and, with it, changes in prices of utilities, commodities and certain consumer goods, along with amendments to State benefits, the minimum wage, and contributory pensions.

It's not always bad news: Sometimes, prices go down – although pensions and the lowest legal salaries never do; in theory, these should rise in line with inflation, but even larger hikes can be introduced where it is considered socially necessary.

Not everyone is affected by increases in taxes, when these are announced. For January 2024, it is mainly the highest earners who will have to pay slightly more.

So, what's going up and what's coming down as we face the usual post-Christmas efforts to tighten our belts?

Electricity

Energy bills are the first to go up in 2024, due to a review in taxes applied to electricity supply. 

Throughout 2023, the government slashed value-added tax (IVA) on mains electricity to 5%, to offset energy price inflation caused by the war in Ukraine, but a gradual return to the usual mid-rate IVA band of 10% is expected over 2024.

Standing charges will rise slightly for electricity use at peak times – between 10.00 and 14.00 and 18.00 and 22.00 on weekdays – but will experience a small decrease for the lowest-priced time brackets, between midnight and 06.00 on weekdays and all day at weekends.

Also last year, the government opted to subsidise Special Tax on Electricity (Impuesto Especial sobre la Electricidad) by 5.11%, leaving it at a total of 0.5%; from the start of 2024, this tax will rise again to 2.5%, and after June this year, will go up again to 3.8%.

For households who use biomass pellets for wood-burning stoves to heat their homes, the reduction in IVA on these to 5% in 2023 will gradually be axed; it has now gone up to 10% and, after June, will return to its previous top-band IVA rate, which is 21%.

So far, the government has not made any amendments to its electricity bill subsidies for low-income households. Last year, 'vulnerable' consumers' discounts went from 25% to up to 65%, and 'extremely vulnerable' consumers' reductions from 40% to up to 85%. This scheme has been renewed again until June – it is reviewed on a six-monthly basis, but as it has been in place for nearly seven years now, is likely to be renewed again mid-year – and is available to individuals and very small businesses who meet the income threshold.

Value-added tax on food

In response to food price inflation, Spain's government opted to cut value-added tax (IVA) on staple goods as a temporary measure, and has announced this will continue until at least June 2024.

When prices soared as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine, some food items which attract the mid-rate IVA band of 10% had theirs reduced to 5% - namely cooking oil and pasta – whilst those considered 'basics', levied at the bottom rate of 4%, became IVA-free.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MASKS are once again compulsory in medical centres and hospitals in some regions in Spain, and strongly recommended in others, the ministry of health has announced.

A high incidence of seasonal 'flu has generated much-increased patient traffic in A&E departments and hospital wards and, as seen during the Covid pandemic, wearing masks in enclosed spaces helps reduce transmission.

Over 90% of the adult population in Spain took up the offer of a Covid vaccine when these were launched and rolled out over 2021 and 2022, meaning very severe cases of the virus are rare, but the take-up rate for the influenza jab is usually lower, only offered free of charge to over-65s, key workers, and those with health conditions that could aggravate and worsen an incidence of 'flu.

Catalunya, Murcia and the Comunidad Valenciana – most of the east coast of mainland Spain – made masks mandatory from January 5 in hospitals and GP surgeries, for staff and members of the public, and the Canary Islands followed suit on January 9.

Aragón, in the north-east, has made masks obligatory for staff in medical centres, but only 'advisable' for care users, particularly those with symptoms of respiratory infections, and also on public transport, in crowded areas or in waiting rooms.

Cantabria, on Spain's north coast, has announced there will be no move to make masks compulsory, only to recommend their use in medical facilities, since no major spike in patient numbers has been seen in the region through seasonal infections – or nothing outside the ordinary increase that occurs every winter, health boss César Pascual notes.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S first two babies born in 2024 arrived with the final chime that heralded the New Year, and almost simultaneously – one in Vigo (Pontevedra province), and one in Salamanca.

Jenny Gallego said her son Kyliam's arrival replaced her traditional New Year routine of 12 grapes with each of the bongs, since 'the final chime was when he appeared'.

Weighing 3.42 kilos (7lb 7oz), Kyliam is Jenny's first child and, thanks to the 'wonderful' epidural she was given, she 'didn't feel a thing'.

“It all went superbly well,” she admitted.

Jenny's mum Mari Carmen Álvarez said the family thought Kyliam was going to arrive at 19.00, which would mean his date of birth was in 2023 – but when they realised midnight was fast approaching and the baby's head was not yet visible, they knew he would be born in a different year.

Carla González Casanueva was born just 26 seconds after midnight at Salamanca's University Assistance Complex to mum Ángela Casanueva Serradilla and dad Sergio González Sánchez – their first child.

Due to her medical team being occupied with attending to the little girl and her mum, the family, nurses and doctors decided to see in the New Year at 01.00 mainland Spain time – just as the Canary Islands was entering 2024.

Three minutes after midnight, Carme entered the world via Manacor Hospital in Mallorca, at the same time as Vera did in the Miguel Servet University Hospital in Zaragoza.

Madrid's first babies of 2024 were Erik and Rubén, at 00.14 on January 1, in La Paz and Fuenlabrada hospitals respectively.

Eight minutes later, Martina became the Basque Country's first baby of the year at Mendaro Hospital, Guipúzkoa province, whilst Arabia put in her first appearance in the world at San Agustín Hospital in Linares, Jaén province, at 00.40, making her the earliest arrival of 2024 in Andalucía.