The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a EUR 100 million loan to Spanish airports operator AENA (Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea) to finance the development of airport facilities on the Balearic Islands. The finance contract was signed today by EIB Vice-President Magdalena Álvarez Arza and AENA’s Chairman, Juan Ignacio Lema. This is the first instalment of a total EUR 400 million loan.

The EIB Vice-President underlined “the European Investment Bank’s firm commitment to supporting the development of airport facilities in Spain, which play a key role in linking the different EU regions and fostering economic and social cohesion within the Union. The schemes financed in this operation will serve to tailor the three airports’ facilities to the islands’ needs and improve service quality and safety”.

The loan will finance investment to develop the facilities of Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca airports with the aim of increasing capacity, improving service quality and bringing them up to international safety standards.

The schemes will help to relieve congestion, cater for traffic growth and, most importantly, improve safety in the three airports.

The project forms part of the strategy to develop priority trans-European networks (TENs) on a European scale. Palma de Mallorca is an international hub and Ibiza and Menorca are EU hubs within the TENs.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term financing arm of the European Union (EU) working to further European objectives. Founded in 1958, it finances projects in the 27 EU Member States and more than 130 other countries worldwide in line with EU policies. Given their key role in fostering the EU’s economic and social integration, the free movement of people and goods, and the development of the Union’s less advanced regions, financing the trans-European networks (TENs) is one of the Bank’s top priorities.